
LOtnS PHILIPPE AT THE HOTEL DE VILLE. 



HISTORY 



OP 



LOUIS PHILIPPE, 

KING OF THE FRENCH. 






By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT, 

ATJTHOE OP 
IE HISTORY OF FREDERICK THE GREAT," "THE HISTORY OF 
WAPOLEON BONAPARTE," "THE FRENCH REVOLUTION," &e. 



iWftI) illustrations. 




NEW YORE AND LONDON: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

1899. 



38702 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 

Harper & Brothers, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Copyright, 1899, by Susan Abbott Mead. 



a; ^ffSS* i.'-»*'T«., 



•^^fciVfeO, 




H'^ 



^1,% 






(V\\^i 



^. . '^ I 



Oinv 



PREFACE. 



It would be difScult to find, in all the range of the 
past, a man whose career has been so full of wonder- 
ful and exciting vicissitude as that of Louis Philippe. 
His life covers tl e most eventful period in T'rench his- 
tory. The stoni^s of 1789 consigned his father to the 
guillotine, his m^-ther and brothers to imprisonment, 
and himself and sister to poverty and exile. There are 
few romances more replete with pensive interest than 
the wanderings of Louis Philippe to escape the blood- 
hounds of the Revolution far away amidst the ices of 
Northern Europe, to the huts of the Laplanders, and 
again through the almost unbroken wilds of North 
America, taking refuge in the wigwams of the Indians, 
and floating with his two brothers in a boat a distance 
of nearly two thousand miles through the solemn sol- 
itudes of the Ohio and the Mississippi from Pittsburg 
to the Gulf. 

Again we see the duke, on the recovery of a large 
portion of his estates, enjoying the elegant retreat at 
Twickenham, fgted by the nobility of England, and ca- 
ressed by the aristocracy of Europe. 

Again the kaleidoscope of changeful life is turned. 
The Empire falls. The Bourbons are restored. Louis 
Philippe returns to the palaces of his fathers. In rank, 



viii Peeface. 

he takes his stand next to the throne. In wealth, he 
is the richest subject in Europe. At one moment he 
is caressed by Royalty, hoping to win his support, and 
again he is persecuted by Royalty, fearing his influence. 

There is another change. The throne of the Bour- 
bons is overthrown. Louis Philippe finds himself, as 
by magic. King of the French. He exchanges his 
ducal coronet for a royal crown. He enters the regal 
mansions of the Tuileries, Versailles, Saint Cloud, and 
Fontainebleau the acknowledged sovereign of thirty 
millions of people. All the proud dynasties of Europe 
recognize him as belonging to the family of kings. 
Eighteen years pass away, crowded with the splendor, 
cares, toils, and perils which seem ever to environ roy- 
alty. During this period the adventures of the Duch- 
ess de Berri to regain the throne for her son, the Count 
de Chambord, presents an episode of extraordinary in- 
terest. 

There is another change. The tocsin of insurrection 
tolls its dismal knell in the towers of Paris. Through 
scenes surpassing fable, the king and his family escape 
to the hospitable shores of England. Here, in obscuri- 
ty and exile, he reaches the end of life's journey, and 
passes away to the unknown of the spirit-land. Such 
is the wonderful story which we have endeavored to 
compress within the limits of these brief pages. Every 
event here narrated is sustained by documentary evi- 
dence beyond the possibility of a doubt. 

John S. C. Abbott. 
Fair Haven, Conn. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. ORIGIN OP THE HOUSE OF ORLEANS 13 

II, THE EXILE 45 

III. WANDERINGS IN THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW 76 

IV. THE TOMB AND THE BRIDAL 109 

V. THE RESTORATION 136 

VI. THE DEATH OF LOUIS XVIII. AND THE REIGN OF 

CHARLES X 168 

VII. CHARLES X. DETHRONED 204 

VIII. THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY 241 

IX. LOUIS Philippe's throne 279 

X. the adventures of the DUCHESS DE BERRI. . 306 

XI. the final STRUGGLE 349 

XII. THE THRONE DEMOLISHED 379 



ENGRAVINGS. 



PAGH 

LOUIS PHILIPPE AT THE HOTEL DE viLLE Frontispiece. 

EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI 27 

STORMING THE BASTILE 40 

FLIGHT AND IMPRISONMENT OF LAFAYETTE 50 

SAINT GOTHARD 71 

NORTH CAPE 80 

LOUIS XVII. IN PRISON 113 

LOUIS XVIII. LEAVING PARIS 147 

NAPOLEON ENTERING THE TUILERIES 151 

MARSHAL NEY 162 

ASSASSINATION OF THE DUKE DE BERRI 171 

PALACE OF ST. CLOUD 222 

CHARLES X. AT VALOGNES 234 

THE PALAIS ROYAL 275 

THE BARRICADES * 312 

ST. HELENA 353 

LOUIS PHILIPPE LEAVING FRANCE 391 



LOUIS PHILIPPE 



Chapter I. 
Origin of the House of Orleans. 

Louis and Philippe. 

THE origin of the House of Orleans is in- 
volved in some obscurity. The city of 
Orleans, from which the duke takes his title, 
was the Aurelium of imperial Rome. The first 
Duke of Orleans with whom history makes us 
familiar was Philip, the only brother of Louis 
XIY. Louis XIIL, the son and heir of Henry 
IV., married Anne of Austria. Two children 
were born to them, Louis and Philippe. The 
first became the world-renowned monarch, Lou- 
is XIY. His brother, known in history as Mon- 
sieur, enjoyed the title and tlie princely reve- 
nues of the dukedom of Orleans. 

Monsieur married, as his first wife, the beau- 
tiful Henrietta Stuart, daughter of the unfortu- 
nate Charles I. of England. Her mother was 
Henrietta of France, the daughter of Henry IV., 



14 Louis Philippe. [1669. 



The regent. 



and sister of Louis XIII. She died in the 
bloom of youth and beauty, of poison, after the 
most cruel sufferings, on the 27th of June, 
1669.* Philippe took as his second wife Eliza- 
beth Charlotte, daughter of the Elector Charles 
of Bavaria. By this marriage he left a son, 
Philippe, who not only inherited his father's 
almost boundless wealth and princely titles, 
but who attained wide-spread notoriety, not to 
say renown, as the regent of France, after the 
death of Louis XIY., and during the minority 
of Louis XV. The regent was a man of in- 
domitable force of will. During his long re- 
gency he swayed the sceptre of a tyrant; and 
the ear of Europe was poisoned with the story 
of his debaucheries. 

He married a legitimated daughter of Louis 
XIV., Marie Frangoise de Blois, a haught}^, ca- 
pricious beauty. His scandalous immoralities 
alienated his duchess from him, and no hap- 
piness was to be found amidst the splendors of 
their home. Dyingsuddenly, at the age of fifty- 
one, his son Louis succeeded him in the vast 
opulence, the titles, and the power of the duke- 
dom of Orleans. The following list of his ti- 
tles may give some idea of the grandeur to 

* See Abbott's History of Louis XIV., p. 223. 



1670.] The House of Orleans. 15 



Louis de Valois. 



which these ancient nobles were born. Louis 
de Yalois, De Chartres, De Nemours, and De 
Montpensier, First Prince of the blood, First 
Peer of France, Knight of the Golden Fleece, 
Colonel-general of the French and Foreign In- 
fantry, Governor of Dauphiny, and Grand Mas- 
ter of the Orders of Notre Dame, of Mount Car- 
mel, and of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem. 

Born, as this young man was, in the palace 
of splendor, and surrounded by every allure- 
ment to voluptuous indulgence, two domestic 
calamities opened his eyes to the vanity of all 
earthly grandeur, and led him to enter those 
paths of piety where his soul found true repose. 
The death of his father, cut down suddenly in 
the midst of his godless revelry, and the decease 
of his beloved wife, Auguste Marie Jeanne, a 
princess of Baden, in her twenty-second year, 
so impressed him with the uncertainty of all 
terrestrial good, and left his home and his heart 
so desolate, that he retired to the Abbey of St. 
Genevieve, and devoted the remainder of his 
days to study, to prayer, and to active works 
of Christian usefulness. 

He became a proficient in the fine arts, an ac- 
complished scholar, and a patron of all those 
literary men whose works tended to benefit soci- 



16 Louis Philippe. [1724. 



Louis le Gros. 



ety. He founded hospitals and literary institu- 
tions; established a college at Versailles; en- 
dowed a professorship at the Sorbonne for ex- 
pounding the Hebrew text of the Scriptures, and 
translated, from the original Greek and Hebrew, 
the Epistles of Paul and the Psalms of David. 
At the early age of forty-eight he died — cheer- 
fully fell asleep in Jesus, rejoicing in the hope 
of a heavenly inheritance. Few men who have 
ever lived have crowded their days with more 
kind, useful, and generous actions. 

His son, Louis Philippe, acquired the sobri- 
quet of le Gros, or the Fat, from his excessive 
corpulence. His unwieldy body probably con- 
tributed to that indolenceof mind which induced 
him to withdraw from nearly all participation 
in political life. LouisXY. was one of the vilest 
of men, and by a portion of his subjects was 
thoroughly detested. Exasperated by an act of 
gross despotism, the deputies from Brittany of- 
fered to furnish Louis Philippe with sixty thou- 
sand men, completely armed, to overthrow the 
reigning dynasty, and to establish in its place 
the House of Orleans. The prince received the 
deputation courteously, but decidedly declined 
embarking in the enterprise, avowing that he 
had not sufficient energy of character to meet 



1785.] The House of Orleans. 17 

Pride of royalty. 

its demand, and that he was too nnuch attached 
to his relative, Louis XV., to engage in a con- 
spiracy against him. He was an amiable, up- 
right man, avoiding notoriety, and devoting 
himself to literary pursuits. Being of the blood 
royal, the etiquette of the French court did not 
allow him to enter into marriage relations with 
any one in whose veins the blood of royalty 
did not flow. His first wife, Louise Henriette 
de Bourbon Conti, was a princess of royal lin- 
eage. Upon her death he married Madame de 
Montesson, a beautiful woman, to whom he was 
exceedingly attached. But the haughty Court 
of France refused to recognize the marriage. 
Notwithstanding his earnest solicitations, he 
was not permitted to confer upon her the title 
of Duchess of Orleans. 

Even when he died, in the 3^ear 1785, court 
etiquette would not allow his widow to assume 
any public demonstrations of mourning. '' The 
blood of a Capet," it was said, "is too pure to 
admit of a recognized alliance below the rank of 
royalty." 

Such, in brief, was the character and career 
of the first four dukes of this illustrious house. 
We are thus brought down to the exciting 
scenes of modern history — to scenes in which 

B 



18 Louis Philippe. [1747. 



Birth ofEs^alite. 



the house of Orleans has acted a part so con- 
spicuous as to attract the attention of the civil- 
ized world. 

The fourth duke of whom we have spoken, 
and his first wife, Henrietta de Bourbon Conti, 
had a son born on the 13th of April, 1747, at 
the Palace of St. Cloud. They gave their child 
the name of Louis Philippe Joseph D'Orleans. 
During the life-time of his father he bore the 
title of the Duke de Chartres. No expense was 
spared in his education, his parents providing 
for him teachers of the highest eminence in all 
the branches of knowledge. Though the young 
prince developed much energy and activity of 
mind, he was not fond of study, and did not 
make any remarkable progress in book-learn- 
ing. 

Surrounded by flatterers, and in the enjoy- 
ment of almost boundless wealth, as the appe- 
tites and passions of youth grew strong, he 
plunged into the most extravagant excesses of 
dissipation. He is described at this time as a 
young man of handsome features and graceful 
figure, above the average size. His skin was 
remarkable for its softness and whiteness, and 
a very sweet smile generally played upon his 
lips. Though simple in his ordinary style of 



1785.] The House of Orleans. 19 

Fortune of the Duke of Orleans. 

living, upon all state occasions tie displayed 
grandeur commensurate with his wealth and 
rank. Immense as was the fortune to which he 
was born, it was greatly enhanced by his mar- 
riage with the Princess Marie Therese Louise, 
only daughter of the Duke of Penthievre, the 
most richly-endowed heiress in Europe. Thus 
he attained wealth which made him the richest 
subject in Europe, and which enabled him al- 
most to outvie the splendors of royalty. But, 
notwithstanding this vast wealth, he plunged 
so recklessly into extravagance that his pecun- 
iary affairs became much embarrassed. 

His father died in the year 1785, just as the 
storms of the French Revolution were begin- 
ning to darken the horizon. The Duke of Char- 
tres then took the title of the Duke of Orleans, 
and rushed into the tumult of revolution with 
eagerness and energ}^, which caused his name 
to resound through all Europe, and which final- 
ly brought his neck beneath the slide of the 
guillotine. 

The court, under Louis XY., in consequence 
of its arbitrary measures, about the year 1789, 
was brouf^ht into collision with the ancient Par- 
liament, which remonstrated, and even refused 
to register the royal edicts. The Duke of Or- 



20 Louis Philippe. [1789. 

Democracy of the Duke of Orleans, 

leans beaded the party opposed to the court. 
At his magnificent mansion, the Palais Eojal, 
nearly opposite the Tuileries, the leading men 
in the Opposition, Kochefoucault, Lafayette, and 
Mirabeau, were accustomed to meet, concerting 
measures to thwart the crown, and to compel 
the convocation of the States-General. In that 
way alone could the people hope to resist the 
encroachments of the crown, and to claim any 
recognition of popular rights. The people, ac- 
customed to the almost idolatrous homage of 
rank and power, were overjoyed in having, as 
the leading advocate of their claims, a prince of 
the blood. The court was greatly exasperated. 
It was determined that the high-born leader of 
the revolutionary party should feel the heaviest 
weight of the royal displeasure. This severity, 
however, did but augment the popularity of the 
duke among the people. 

Louis XYL, through his advisers, ordered 
the Parliament to register a loan, thus compel- 
ling the people to furnish the money it despot- 
ically demanded. The Opposition in vain urged 
that the States-General should be convened, as 
alone competent to impose taxes. The royal 
measure was carried, notwithstanding the Oppo- 
sition. As the keeper* of the seals, amidst the 



1789.J The House of Orleans. 21 

Wealth of the Duke of Orleans, 



most profound emotion of the Parliament, read 
the decree, the Duke of Orleans rose, and, with 
much agitation of voice and manner, inquired: 

" Is this assemblage a Lit de justice^ or a free 
consultation ?" 

" It is a royal sitting^'' the king answered, 
somewhat sternly. 

"Then," replied the duke, "I beg that your 
majesty will permit me to deposit at your feet, 
and in the bosom of the court, the declaration, 
that I regard the registration as illegal^ and that 
it will be necessary, for the exculpation of those 
persons who are held to have deliberated upon 
it, to add that it is by express command of the 
king." 

This bold act announced to all France that the 
Duke of Orleans was ready to place himself at 
the head of the opposition to the court, and that 
he was endowed with the courage and energy 
which would be found essential to maintain that 
post. The wealth of the Duke of Orleans was 
so great that a former loan of twenty-five mil- 
lion dollars he had taken up himself. Imme- 
diately upon the withdrawal of the king from 
the Parliament, the Duke of Orleans presented 
and carried a resolve declaring the action which 
had taken place as illegal. 



22 Louis Philippe. [1789. 



Banishment of the duke. 



The king, who was quite under the influence 
of the stronger mind of his wife, Maria An- 
toinette, was deeply offended. The duke was 
banished from Paris to his rural chateau of 
Villers Cotterets, and his leading friends in the 
Opposition were exiled to the isles of Hi^res. 
The indisrnation of Parliament was roused, and 
very vigorous resolutions of remonstrance were 
adopted, and presented to the king. In these 
resolves it was written : 

" The first prince of the royal family is exiled. 
It is asked in vain, What crime has he commit- 
ted? If the Duke of Orleans is culpable, we 
are all so. It was worthy of the first prince of 
your blood to represent to your majesty that 
you were changing the sitting into a lit de justice. 
If exile be the reward for fidelity in princes, 
we may ask ourselves, with terror and with 
grief, What protection is there for law and lib- 
erty?" 

In allusion to tbe universal impression that 
the king was urged to these severe measures by 
the influence of Maria Antoinette, the Parlia- 
ment added, " Such measures, sire, dwell not in 
your own heart. Such examples do not origi- 
nate from your majesty. They flow from anoth- 
er source. Your Parliament supplicates your 



1789.] The House of Orleans. 23 

Popularity of the Duke of Orleans. 

majesty to reject those merciless counsels, and 
to listen to the dictates of your own heart." 

The plea was unavailing. The agitation 
throughout France was I'apidly increasing — 
the people everywhere struggling against the 
encroachments of the crown. From all parts of 
the kingdom the cry arose for the assembling 
of the States-General. The Duke of Orleans, 
maddened by his banishment, and exasperated 
to the highest degree against Maria Antoinette, 
whom he considered as the author of his exile, 
was intensely engaged in plotting measures of 
revenge. During his banishment he won the 
affections of the peasantry by the kindly inter- 
est he seemed to take in their welfare. He chat- 
ted freely with the farmers and the day -laborers 
— entered their cottages and conversed with 
their families on the most friendly terms — pre- 
sented dowries to young brides, and stood spon- 
sor for infants. 

This course rapidly increased the popularity 
of the duke among the people, and the Parlia- 
ment was unceasing in its solicitations for his 
recall. The court became embarrassed, and at 
length gladly availed itself of the opportunity 
of releasing him, in response to a petition from 
the Duchess of Orleans. 



24 Louis Philippe. [1789. 

Assembliug of the States-Geueral. 



The current of the revolution was now be- 
ginning to flow with resistless flood. The hos- 
tility between the court and the people was 
hourly increasing. Famine added its horrors 
to the general tumult and agitation. A winter 
of unparalleled severity — the winter of 1789 — 
terribly increased the general suffering. The 
Duke of Orleans was profuse in his liberalitj^ 
opening a public kitchen, and supplying the 
wants of famishing thousands. The duke, hav- 
ing thus embarked, without reserve, in the cause 
of the people, added to his own popularity and 
to the exasperation of the court, by publicly re- 
nouncing all his feudal rights, and permitting 
the public to hunt and shoot at pleasure over 
his vast domains. His popularity now became 
immense. The journals were filled with his 
praises. Whenever he appeared in public, mul- 
titudes followed him with their acclaim. 

On the 4th of May, 1789, the States-General, 
or National Assembly, met. The duke, followed 
by about forty others of the nobility, renounced 
all his aristocratic privileges, and took his place 
as an eqnal in the ranks of the tiers etat, or third 
estate, as the common people were called. The 
energy, the nobility, and the people then consti- 
tuted the three estates of the realm. 



1798.J The House of Orleans. 25 

Commotion in Paris. 



The French Kevolution was now advancing 
with rapid strides, acconapanied by anarchy, vi- 
olence, and bloodshed. The court party was 
increasingly exasperated against the popular 
duke, and many stories were fabricated against 
him to undermine his influence. The situation 
of the king and royal family became daily more 
irksome and perilous. He endeavored to es- 
cape, to join the armies of Austria and Prussia, 
which were marchinof to his relief He was 
arrested at Yarennes, brought back to Paris, 
and held as a prisoner in the Tuileries. The 
question was now discussed of deposing the 
king and establishing a regency under the Duke 
of Orleans. 

The first National Assembly, called the Con- 
stituent, which was convened to draw up a con- 
stitution for France, having completed its work, 
was dissolved ; and another assembly, denom- 
inated the Legislative, was chosen to enact laws 
under that constitution. The allied armies of 
foreign dynasties were on the march to rob the 
French people of their constitution, and to im- 
pose upon them the absolute despotism of the 
old regime. Fearful riots ensued in Paris. The 
palace of the Tuileries was stormed. The king, 
with his family, fled to the Legislative Assem- 



26 Louis Philippe. [1798. 



Flight of the nobles. 



bly for protection, and was imprisoned in the 
Temple. On the 20th of January, 1793, he died 
upon the scaffold. 

The National Convention, which speedily 
succeeded the Legislative Assembly, brought 
the accusation of treason against the king — 
tried, condemned, and executed him. The Duke 
of Orleans, a member of this Convention, voted 
for the death of the king. The abolition of 
monarchy and the establishment of a republic 
immediately followed. The question was with 
iiiuch interest discussed, whether the republic 
should be federal, like that of the United States, 
or integral, like the ancient republics of Greece 
and Eome. The Duke of Orleans advocated 
the concentration of power and the indivisibil- 
ity of France. Fanaticism usurped the place 
of reason; the guillotine was busy; suspicions 
filled the air ; no life was safe. The Duke of 
Orleans was alarmed. He sent 'his daughter, 
under the care of Madame de Genlis, to En- 
gland. The nobles were flying in all direc- 
tions. Severe laws were passed against the emi- 
grants. The duke, who had assumed the sur- 
name of Egalit^, or Equality, excited suspicion 
by placing his daugbter among the emigrants. 
It was said that he had no confidence in the 



1792.] The House of Orleans. 29 

Petition of the Duke of Orleans. 



people or in the new order of things. To lull 
these suspicions, the duke sent a petition to the 
Convention on the 21st of JSTovember, 1792, 
containing the following statement: 

"Citizens, — You have passed a law against 
those cowards who have fled their country in 
the moment of danger. The circumstance I 
have to lay before you is peculiar. My daugh* 
ter, fifteen years of age, passed over to England 
in the month of October, 1791, with her gov- 
erness and two companions of her studies. Her 
governess, Madame de Genlis, has early initia- 
ted them in liberal views and republican vir- 
tues. The English language forms a part of the 
education which she has given to my daughter. 
One of the motives of this journey has been to 
acquire the pronunciation of that tongue. Be- 
sides that, the chalybeate waters of England 
were recommended as restoratives of my daugh- 
ter's health. It is impossible, under these cir- 
cumstances, to regard the journey of my daugh- 
ter as emigration. I feel assured that the law 
is not applicable in this case. But the slightest 
doubt is sufficient to distress a father. I beg, 
therefore, fellow-citizens, that you will relieve 
me from this uneasiness." 

But by this time the Convention began to 



30 Louis Philippe. [1792. 



Domestic discord. 



look upon the Duke of Orleans with suspicion. 
Eumors were in circulation that many of the 
people, tired of republicanism — which was 
crowding the prisons, and causing blood to 
gush in an incessant flow — wished to reinstate 
the monarchy, and to place the Duke of Or- 
leans upon the throne. The Duchess of Or- 
leans, the child of one of the highest nobles, 
was not in sympathy with her husband in his 
democratic views. His boundless profligacy 
had also alienated her affections, so that there 
was no domestic happiness to be found in the 
gorgeous saloons of the Palais Koyal. 

Eobespierre wished to banish the Duke of 
Orleans from France, as a dangerous man, 
around whom the not 3^et extinct spirit of roy- 
alty might rally. He moved in the Conven- 
tion, "That all the relatives of Bourbon Capet 
should be obliged, within eight days, to quit the 
territory of France and the countries then oc- 
cupied by the Eepublican armies." 

The motion was, for the time, frustrated by 
the following expostulation by M. Lamarque : 

"Would it not be the extreme of injustice 
to exile all of the Capets, without distinction ? 
I have never spoken but twice to Egalite. I 
am, therefore, not open to the suspicion of par- 



1792.] The House of Orleans. 81 

Flight of General Dnmouriez. 

tiality, but I have closely observed his conduct 
in the Eevolution. I have seen him deliver 
himself up to it entirely, a willing victim for its 
promotion, not shrinking from the greatest sac- 
rifices; and I can truly assert that but for Ega- 
lite we never should have had the States-Gen- 
eral — we should never have been free." 

Thus public sentiment fluctuated. An event 
soon occurred which brought matters to a crisis. 
General Dumouriez, a former minister of Lou- 
is XVL, was in command of the army on the 
northern frontier. Disgusted with the violence 
of the Convention, which was silencing all 
opposition with the slide of the guillotine, and 
apprehensive of personal danger, from the con- 
sciousness that he was suspected of not being 
very friendly to the Government, he resolved to 
abandon the country which he thought doomed 
to destruction, and to seek safety in flight. Louis 
Philippe, the eldest son of the Duke of Orleans, 
then a lad of about 16, was on his stafl'. They 
fled together. This aroused popular indigna- 
tion in Paris to the highest pitch. This young 
prince, Louis Philippe, then entitled the Duke 
of Chartres, and who, as subsequently King of 
the French, is the subject of this memoir, had 
written in a letter to his father, which was in- 



32 Louis Philippe. [1792. 



Arrest of the Duke of Orleans. 



tercepted, these words : " I see the Convention 
utterly destroying France." It was believed 
that Dumouriez had entered into a plot for 
placing the Duke of Orleans on the throne, and 
that the duke was cognizant of the plan. 

A decree was immediately passed ordering 
the arrest of every Bourbon in France. The 
duke was arrested and conveyed to Marseilles, 
with several members of his family. Here he 
was held in durance for some time, and was 
then brought to Paris to be tried for treason.' 
Though there was no evidence whatever against 
him, he was declared guilty of being " an ac- 
complice in a conspiracy against the unity and 
indivisibility of the Eepublic," and was con- 
demned to death. 

The duke, as he heard the sentence, replied : 
*' Since you were predetermined to put me to 
death, you ought at least to have sought for 
more plausible pretexts to attain that end ; for 
you will never persuade the world that you 
deem me guilty of what yon now declare me to 
be convicted. However, since my lot is decided, 
I demand that you will not let me languish here 
until to-morrow, but order that I be led to exe- 
cution instantly." His request was not grant- 
ed; but he was conducted back, to the cells of 



1793.] The House of Okleans. 83 

Execution of Egalit^. 

the Conciergerie, to be executed the next day. 
The next morning he was placed in the death- 
cart at the Conciergerie, with four others of the 
condemned, to be conveyed to the guillotine, 
which stood in the Place de la Concorde. He 
was elaborately dressed in a green frock-coat, 
white waistcoat, doe-skin breeches, and with 
boots carefully polished. His hair was dressed 
and powdered with care. As the cart passed 
slowly along in front of his princely abode, the 
Palais Eoyal, and through immense crowds, 
lining the streets, who formerly had been fed 
by his liberality, and who now clamored for his 
death, he looked around upon them with ap- 
parently perfect indifference. 

At the guillotine the executioner took off his 
coat, and was about to draw off his boots, when 
he said, calmly, "It is only loss of time; you 
will remove them more easily from my lifeless 
limbs." He examined the keen edge of the 
knife, and was bound to the plank. The slide 
fell, and his head dropped into the basket. 
Thus perished Louis Philippe Egalite in the 
46th year of his age. It was the 6th of No- 
vember, 1793, ten months after Louis XYI. had 
perished upon the same scaffold. The immo- 
ralities of the Duke of Orleans were such that it 

C 



84 Lulus Philippe. [1773. 

Birth of Louis Philippe. 

has often been said of him, " Nothing became 
his life so much as his manner of leaving it." 
Louis Philippe Egalite, inheriting from his 
ancestors vast opulence, had become, by his 
marriage with the daughte«r of the immensely 
wealthy Duke of Penthievre, the possessor of 
almost royal domains. His wife, the duchess, 
though aristocratic in all her prepossessions, 
and sympathizing not at all with her husband 
in his democratic views, was a woman of un* 
blemished character, of amiable disposition, and 
of devoted piety. 

Having thus given a brief account of the 
origin of the Orleans family, we must, at the 
expense of a little repetition, turn back to the 
birth of Louis Philippe, the oldest son of the 
Duke of Orleans, and the subject of this me- 
moir. 

Louis Philippe was born in the Palais Royal, 
in Paris, on the 6th of October, 1778. In his 
early years, he, with the other children of the 
ducal family, was placed under the care and 
tuition of the celebrated Madame de Genlis. 
Until the death of his father, he bore the title 
of the Duke of Chartres. 

" The Duke of Chartres," writes Lamartine, 
" liad no youth. Education suppressed this age 



1780.] The House of Okleans. 35 



His daily journal. 



in the pupils of Madame de Genlis. Reflection, 
study, premeditation of every thought and act, 
replaced nature by study, and instinct by will. 
At seventeen years of age, the young prince 
had the maturity of advanced years." 

Madame de Genlis was unwearied in her 
endeavors to confer upon her illustrious pupil 
the highest intellectual and religious educa- 
tion. The most distinguished professors were 
appointed to instruct in those branches with 
which she was not familiar. His conduct was 
recorded in a minute daily journal, from which 
every night questions were read subjecting him 
to the most searching self-examination. The 
questions were as follows : 

1. Have I this day fulfilled all my duties to- 
wards God, my Creator, and prayed to Him 
with fervor and affection ? 

2. Have I listened with respect and atten- 
tion to the instructions which have been given 
me to-day, with regard to my Christian duties, 
and in reading works of piety ? 

8. Have I fulfilled all my duties this day to- 
wards those I ought to love most in the world 
—my father and my mother. 

4. Have I behaved with mildness and kind- 
ness towards my sister and my brothers? 



86 Louis Philippe. [1780. 

Educational influences. 

5. Have I been docile, grateful, and attentive 
to my teachers ? 

6. Have I been perfectly sincere to-day, dis- 
obliging no one, and speaking evil of no one ? 

7. Have I been as discreet, prudent, charita- 
ble, modest, and courageous as may be expected 
at my age ? 

8. Have I shown no proof of that weakness or 
effeminacy which is so contemptible in a man ? 

9. Have I done all the good I could ? 

10. Have I shown all the marks of attention 
I ought to the persons, present or absent, to 
whom I owe kindness, respect, and affection ? 

These questions were read to him every 
night from his journal. To each one he re- 
turned a reply in writing. He then kneeled, 
and in prayer implored the forgiveness of his 
sins, and Divine guidance for the future. Under 
such training, notwithstanding the enjoyment 
of almost boundless wealth, the influence of a 
dissolute father, and the measureless corrup- 
tions of the times, Louis Philippe developed a 
character embellished by the loftiest principles 
and the purest integrity. 

The Orleans children, consisting of three sons 
and a daughter, were taught in their earliest 
years to speak French, English, German, and 



1785.] The House of Orleans. 37 

Mental and physical training. 

Italian, so that each of these languages became, 
as it were, vernacular. At St. Leu, where they 
resided most of the time, a garden was laid out, 
which they dug and cultivated with their own 
hands. A German gardner superintended 
their work, while a German valet accompanied 
them in their morning walks. A physician, 
who was a distinguished chemist, instructed 
them in botany, pointing out the medicinal vir- 
tues of the various plants. They were taught 
to manufacture numerous articles of domestic 
utility, and the boys became skillful in turn- 
ing, weaving, basket-making, and other mechan- 
ical employments. The Duke of Chartres be- 
came a very skillful cabinet-maker, and, aided 
by his brother, the Duke of Montpensier, man- 
ufactured a bureau for a poor woman at St. Leu 
which was equal to any which could be found 
in the market. They were also accustomed to 
fatigue and hardship, that they might be pre- 
pared for any of the vicissitudes of future life. 
Madame de Genlis, in reference to this training 
of her pupil, and his subsequent trials and pri- 
vations, writes: 

"How often, since his misfortunes, have I 
applauded myself for the education I have 
given him; for having taught him the principal 



88 Louis Philippe. [1785. 



Testimony of Madame de Geulis. 



modern languages; for having accustomed him 
to wait on himself; to despise all kinds of effem- 
inacy; to sleep habitually on a wooden bed, 
with no covering but a mat ; to expose himself 
to heat, cold, and rain ; to accustom himself to 
fatigue by daily and violent exercise, by walk- 
ing ten or fifteen miles with leaden soles to his 
shoes ; and, finally, for having given him the 
taste and habit of travelling. He had lost all 
that he inherited from birth and fortune ; and 
nothing remained but what he had received 
from nature and me." 

In one of her earlier letters, she wrote: "The 
Duke of Chartres has greatly improved in dis- 
position during the past year. He was born 
with good inclinations, and has now become in- 
telligent and virtuous. Possessing none of the 
frivolities of the age, he disdains the puerilities 
which occupy the thoughts of so many young 
men of rank — such as fashions, dress, trinkets, 
follies of all kinds, and a desire for novelties. 
He has no passion for money, is disinterested, 
despises glare, and is, consequently, truly no- 
ble. Finally, he has an excellent heart, which 
is common to his brothers and sister, and which, 
joined to reflection, is capable of producing all 
other good qualities." 




STORMING THK BASTILE. 



1785.] The House of Orleans. 41 



Demolition of the Bastile. 



Daring the boyhood of Louis Philippe, rev- 
olutionary principles were rapidly spreading 
over France ; and, as he approached manhood, 
they had reached their maturity. The example 
of his father, and the teachings of Madame de 
Genlis, inclined him strongly in the direction of 
popular rights, though his mother did not at all 
sympathize with these revolutionary principles. 
When the exasperated people rose and demol- 
ished the Bastile — the symbol and the instru- 
ment of as great despotic power as ever existed 
upon earth — Madame de Genlis took her pupils 
into Paris to witness the sublime drama. In 
describing the scene, she writes eloquently : 

" This redoubtable fortress was covered with 
men, women, and children, working with un- 
equalled ardor, even on the most lofty parts of 
the building and on its turrets. The astonish- 
ing number of these voluntary laborers, their 
activity, their enthusiasm, their delight at see- 
ing the fall of that terrible monument of tyran- 
ny — these avenging hands, which seemed con- 
secrated by Providence, and which annihilated 
with such rapidity the work of many centuries 
— all this spoke at once to the imagination and 
the heart." 

When the Duke of Chartres was informed 



42 Louis Philippe. [1785. 

The Duke of Chartres joins the Jacobin Club. 

that the Assembly had annulled all the rights 
of primogeniture — thus depriving him, as the 
first-born, of his exclusive right to the title and 
the estate — he threw his arms around his broth- 
er, the Duke of Montpensier, and said, "Now, 
indeed, we are brothers in every respect." The 
unconcealed liberal opinions of the young 
prince increased the exasperation of the court 
against the whole Orleans family. And when, 
guided by his radical father, and in opposition 
to the advice of Madame de Genlis, the young 
duke became a member of the Jacobin Club — 
then numbering, as it was estimated, four hun- 
dred thousand in France — the indignation of 
the court reached its highest pitch. 

On the 20th of ISTovember, 1785, the young 
Duke of Chartres, then in his thirteenth year, 
became colonel of the nineteenth regiment of 
dragoons. He proceeded, not long after, to 
Yendome, and devoted himself, with all the en- 
thusiasm of youth, to the duties of his profes- 
sion. His democratic principles led him, in 
opposition to the example of most of his broth- 
er-officers, to associate quite familiarly with the 
common soldiers. 

"Far from imitating the example of these 
young noblemen, who disdained to mix or con- 



1785.] The House of Orleans. 43 

His afiability. 

verse with the soldiers, the duke was constantly 
in the midst of them, and the advice and rep- 
rimands which they received from his lips had 
double the force of usual orders. On every 
occasion he proved himself the soldier's friend. 
He heard their complaints with kindness, and 
the generous, noble familiarity with which he 
replied to their demands in a little time won 
for him all their hearts. Strengthened by those 
affections, which he so well knew how to merit, 
he was enabled, without any exertion, to estab- 
lish and preserve the strictest discipline. His 
men obeyed him with pleasure, because his or- 
ders were always given with urbanity. 

" His exemplary conduct had the happiest 
influence over the whole garrison of Yendome. 
The soldiers now forgot his youth ; the oldest 
officers found in him such intelligence and 
punctuality as sometimes left their experience 
in arrear. He frequently reached the stables, 
in the morning, before the lieutenant, whose 
duty it was to call there; and he exhibited 
equal energy in every other subject. His lieu- 
tenant-colonel, imagining that this too frequent 
appearance among the men would lessen that 
respect for the dignity of colonel which he con- 
sidered essential to the maintenance of disci- 



44 Louis Philippe. [1788. 



Noble sentiment. 



pline, ventured to remonstrate with him upon 
his conduct. He replied : 

" ' I do not think that I shall forfeit the re- 
spect of my men, or be less entitled to their re 
gard, by giving them an example of punctu- 
ality, and by being the first to submit myself 
to the demands of discipline.' "* 

* Life and Times of Louis Philippe, King of the French, 
by Rev. G. N. Wright. 



1791.] The Exile. 45 

Plans for the invasion of France. 



Chapter II. 
The Exile. 

IN the month of August, 1791, the Duke of 
Chartres left Yendome with his regiment, 
and went to Valenciennes, where he spent the 
winter. He had been appointed commandant 
of that place, and, young as he was, discharged 
the important duties of the position with abil- 
ity and firmness, which secured for him a very 
high reputation. The emigrant nobles had as- 
sembled on the French frontier, in the elector- 
ate of Treves, where they were organizing their 
forces for the invasion of France. It was un- 
derstood that Leopold II., then Emperor of Ger- 
many, was co-operating with them, and was for- 
warding large bodies of troops to many points 
along the German banks of the Ehine for a cru- 
sade into France. 

The French government demanded of the 
emperor an explanation of his intentions. He 
replied : " We do not know of any armaments 
in the Austrian states which can be magnified 



46 Louis Philippe. [1792. 



The campaign of 1792. 



into preparations for war." Though Louis 
XYI. was in cordial sympathy with the emi- 
grants, and, by his secret agents, was urging the 
Emperor of Austria to lend him troops to aid 
in crushing the revolution in France, still he 
was compelled not only to dissemble, but on the 
20th of April, 1792, publicly to declare war 
against the Emperor of Austria, who was broth- 
er of his queen, Maria Antoinette. 

The Duke of Orleans, Egalite^ begged permis- 
sion of the king to join the armies of revolu- 
tionized France in their march against Austria, 
and to take with him his two oldest sons, the 
Duke of Chartres (Louis Philippe), and the 
Duke of Montpensier. In the campaign of 
1792, which ensued, both of these young men 
acquired distinction and promotion. General 
Biron, in command, wrote to the minister of 
war: 

" Messieurs Chartres and Montpensier have 
accompanied me as volunteers, and, being ex- 
posed for the first time to a brisk fire from the 
enemy, behaved with the utmost heroism and 
intrepidity." 

The Duke of Chartres, in command of a bri- 
gade of dragoons, was soon after transferred to 
a corps at Metz, under General Kellerman, who 



1792.] The Exile. 47 

The iuvasion of France. 

subsequently obtained such renown in the wars 
of the Empire. 

When the Duke of Chartres first appeared at 
head-quarters, General Kellerman, not know- 
ing who he was, and surprised by his youthful 
appearance, exclaimed : 

"Ah, monsieur! I never before have had 
the pleasure of seeing so young a general offi- 
cer. How have you contrived to be made a 
general so soon ?" 

The duke replied : " By being a son of him 
who made a colonel of you." They clasped 
hands cordially, and a warm friendship com- 
menced between them. 

In July, 1792, the united armies of Prussia 
and Austria commenced their march from the 
German fortresses upon the Ehine into France. 
The emigrant nobles, and all their partisans, 
were received into the ranks of these invaders. 
Their combined strength amounted to 160,000 
men. The Duke of Brunswick, in command 
of the united armies, issued from Coblentz, on 
on the 15th of July, 1792, his famous manifesto, 
in which he declared, " That he would punish 
as rebels every Frenchman who should oppose 
the allied army; and that, should any attack be 
made upon the royal family in the Tuileries, the 



48 Louis Philippe. [1792. 



Proclamation of the Assembly. 



whole city should be given up to destruction, 
and the rebels to instant death." 

In view of these terrible menaces, the Leg- 
islative Assembly issued a proclamation, in 
which it was said : 

"A numerous army has moved upon our 
frontiers. All those who are enemies to liberty 
have armed themselves against our constitu- 
tion. Citizens ! the country is in danger ! Let 
all those who have had the happiness of taking 
up arms in the cause of liberty remember that 
they are Frenchmen, and free; that their fel- 
low-citizens enjoy in their homes security of 
persons and property; that the magistrates are 
vigilant; that every thing depends on calm res- 
olution ; that they should take care to acknowl- 
edge the majesty of law, and the country will 
still be safe." 

The plan of the campaign, adopted by the 
Duke of Brunswick, was to press rapidly for- 
ward, with his combined army, from the banks 
of the Ehine to Paris, cut off its supplies, and 
by famine to compel it to surrender. He 
would then destroy the liberal constitution, 
punish and disperse the friends of popular 
rights, and restore the king to the absolutism 
of the old regime. To oppose this formidable 



1792.] The Exile. 51 

Imprisonment of Lafayette. 

army of invasion, France had one corps of 
14,000 men near Metz, and another of 83,000 
at Sedan, under General Dumouriez. General 
Lafayette had been in command of the latter 
force; but, by his opposition to some of the 
radical measures of the Convention, had excited 
the hostility of the Paris mob and the Jacobin 
clubs. They had burned him in effigy at the 
Palais Royal, accused him of treason before the 
Assembly, and set a price upon his head. Ar- 
gument was of no avail against the fury of the 
populace — in flight only was his safety. While 
thus pursued by the Jacobins of Paris as an 
aristocrat, he was arrested by a patrol of the 
Austrian army as a democrat. With the great- 
est secrecy, his captors hurried him to Olmutz, 
where he was thrown into close confinement, 
and subjected to the most cruel privations. It 
was two years before his friends could discover 
the place of his captivity. His wife and daugh- 
ters then, after much difficulty and delay, suc- 
ceeded in obtaining permission to share the 
glooms of his dungeon. It was not until after 
an imprisonment of five years that he was set 
at liberty, Napoleon commanding his release 
in tones which Austria did not dare to disre- 
s:ard. 



52 Louis Philippe. [1792. 



Measures of defense. 



The proclamation by the Assembly that the 
country was in danger, caused volunteers in 
large numbers to set out from every portion 
of France. From Paris alone, in three days, 
an army of 32,000 men, completely equipped, 
were on the advance to the scene of conflict. 
General Dumouriez, in command at Sedan, 
drew up his lines of defense before the defiles 
of Argoun, where he thought he could make the 
most effectual stand against the invading host. 
The Duke of Brunswick fell fiercely upon his 
left wing, and, breaking through, poured his 
troops like a flood into the plains of Cham- 
pagne. For a time a terrific panic spread 
through the French army, and it became need- 
ful for Generals Dumouriez and Kellerman to 
unite their forces. In the mean time, the tri' 
umphant Prussians, defiling rapidly by Grand- 
pre and Croix-aux-Bois, were approaching Cha- 
lons. 

The French, troops concentrated at Yalmy. 
There they drew up in line of battle, to arrest 
the advance of their foes. The second line of 
the French army was commanded by the Duke 
of Chartes. The battle which ensued was one 
of the most memorable and hard-fought in 
French history. In the early morning a dense 



1792.] The Exile. 63 

Battle of Valmy. 

mist covered the field of conflict. At eleven 
o'clock the fog dispersed, and the sun came out 
brightly, revealing the Prussian columns ad- 
vancing in beautiful order, with a glittering dis- 
play of caparisoned horses and polished weap- 
ons, deploying with as much precision as if on 
a field of parade. The eye took in at a glance 
100,000 men preparing for the death-struggle. 
It was, indeed, an imposing spectacle, for such 
hosts had then been rarely collected on any 
field of blood. 

Neither party seemed disposed to come into 
close contact with the other, but each brought 
forward its batteries, and a terrific cannonade 
commenced, which continued until the close of 
the day. It was estimated that forty thousand 
balls were hurled by the opposing armies into 
each other's ranks. Each army, however, main- 
tained its position. Yet it was considered a 
French victory, for the Prussians failed in 
their attempt to break through the lines of the 
French, and the French succeeded in arresting 
the march of the Prussians. Indeed, it was 
admitted by the Prussians that their plan was 
hopelessly thwarted. The Duke of Brunswick 
proposed an armistice to the French officers, 
and this was speedily followed by the evacua- 



54 Louis Philippe. [1792. 

Gallantry of the Duke of Chartres. 

tion of the French territory by the whole body 
of Prussian troops. Thus, for the time, the 
Germanic project of invasion was abandoned. 

The Duke of Chartres again, upon this occa- 
sion, distinguished himself by bravery and mil- 
itary skill. General Kellerman, in his official 
report of the battle, said : " I shall only partic- 
ularize, among those who have shown distin- 
guished courage, M. Chartres and his aid-de- 
camp, M. Montpensier, whose extreme youth 
renders his presence of mind, during one of 
the most tremendous cannonades ever heard, so 
very remarkable." 

It will be observed that General Kellerman 
speaks of the young dukes as simply M. Char- 
tres and M. Montpensier. At that time all hon- 
orary titles were abolished in France, and the 
highest nobles were addressed, as were the 
humblest peasants, by the only title of Citizen. 
Still, the lower classes regarded \yith great 
jealousy those higher orders to whom they had 
been accustomed to pay the homage which 
slaves render their masters. The laborers, the 
humble artisans, the toil-worn peasants, could 
not appear with any thing like equality in the 
presence of the high-born men and courtly 
dames who, through their ancestry of many 



1792.] The Exile. 65 

Embarrassment of Egalite. 

generations, bad been accustomed to wealth and 
rank and power. Thus, to the lower orders, the 
dress of a gentleman, the polite bearing of the 
prince, the courtly manner of the noble, excited 
suspicion, and created hostile feelings. 

Even Egalite himself, though he had re- 
nounced all his titles, all his feudal rights, and 
had assumed, as far as possible, the manners of 
a blunt, plain-spoken man, was still, next to 
the king, in the enjoyment of the richest rev- 
enue in France. He could by no possibility 
place himself upon a social equality with his 
boot-black. He manifested no disposition to 
divide his vast possessions with the mob in 
Paris, and to send his wife to work with the 
washer-women, and his daughter to a factory, 
and to earn himself his daily bread by menial 
toil. And the washer-women were asking, 
"Why should we toil at the tub, and Citizeness 
Orleans ride in her carriage and dress in satins? 
We are as good as she, and our blood is as 
red." And at the corners of the streets, the un- 
combed mob were beginning to inquire, "Why 
should Citizen Orleans, who, by adopting the 
title of Egalite, has confessed himself to be only 
our equal, be in possession of magnificent pal- 
aces, and of thousands of acres of the public 



56 Louis Philippe. [1792. 



Continued war against France. 



domain, and of a revenue of millions of francs, 
while we dwell in hovels, and eat the coarsest 
food, and, by the most menial toil, obtain a bare 
subsistence? Citizen Orleans has given up his 
titles, as he ought to have done ; now let him 
give up his enormous estates, and divide them 
among us, his brethren ; and, if he is unwilling 
to do this, let us compel him to do so." 

Louis Philippe, accustomed to profound re- 
flection, and trained in the school of these tre- 
mendous political agitations, clearly foresaw all 
these menaces. He was well aware that it was 
no longer safe for him to be in Paris, and that 
the perils of the battle-field were among the 
least he had to encounter. Though the Prus- 
sian troops had withdrawn from the alliance 
against France, the Austrians, encouraged by 
the intrigues and the gold of the British cabi- 
net, still continued the conflict. The Austrian 
court had an additional motive for persever- 
ance, in the war against revolutionary France, 
in the anxiety it felt for the safety of the Aus- 
trian princess, Marie Antoinette. 

On the 5th of November, 1792, the French 
army, under General Dumouriez, found itself 
intrenched upon the heights of Jemappes. Di- 
rectly before it was the camp of the Austrians, 



1792.] The Exile. 57 



The Battle of Jemappes. 



containing a veteran force of twenty -two thou- 
sand men, commanded by General Clarfait. 

The renowned battle of Jemappes ensued, 
•which commenced, after a cannonade of three 
hours, by an attack upon the whole of the Aus- 
trian lines by the entire French army. Again 
the young Duke of Chartres, who commanded 
the centre, greatly distinguished himself by his 
coolness, bravery, and skill. The carnage was 
serious on both sides, and for some hours the re- 
sult was doubtful. At length victory declared 
in favor of the French. The Austrians, driven 
from all their positions, fled, leaving the battle- 
field covered with their dead, and abandoning 
nearly all their cannon to the victors. 

The French vigorously pursued the routed 
Austrians until they again overtook them, and 
drove them out of the kingdom. On the 8th 
day after the victory of Jemappes, Dumouriez 
advanced the French standard to Brussels. As 
we have mentioned, the sister of the Duke of 
Chartres, the Princess Eugene Louise Adelaide, 
with her governess, Madame de Genlis, had 
been included in the proscriptive laws against 
emigration. The Duke of Chartres visited them 
in Switzerland, where they had taken refuge, 
and conducted them to Tornay. 



58 Louis Philippe. [1792. 



Peril of the Orleans Family. 



While there, a new decree was issued by the 
Assembly, declaring that every member of the 
Boarbon family then in France, with the ex- 
ception of the royal household itself, which 
was held in imprisonment in the Temple await- 
ing trial under the charge of treason, should 
leave France, and all the territory occupied by 
the newly-established Eepublic, within eight 
days. The position of the Orleans branch of 
the Bourbon family now became every hour 
increasingly perilous. The nation was demand- 
ing the life of the king, and the banishment of 
all who bore his name. St. Just, in urging in 
the Assembly this decree of banishment, said: 
"As to the king, we shall keep him ; and you 
know for loJiat V 

The Duke of Chartres, who very fully com- 
prehended the peril in which his father's fami- 
ly was involved, urged him to avail himself of 
the decree of banishment, which opened an 
honorable avenue of escape for him, and all his 
family, from France. 

" You will assuredly," said he to his father, 
" find yourself in an appalling situation. Louis 
XYI. is about to be accused before an assembly 
of which you are a member. You must sit be- 
fore the king as his judge. Eeject the ungra- 



1792.] The Exile. 69 

Decision of the Duke of Orleans. 

cious datj^; withdraw, with your family, to 
America, and seek a calm retreat, far from the 
enemies of France, and there await the return 
of happier days." 

But the Duke of Orleans did not deem it con- 
sistent with his honor to desert his post in the 
hour of danger. Yet the arguments urged by 
his son were so strong that he desired him to 
consult an influential member of the Assembly 
upon the subject. The deputy replied : 

"I am incompetent to give your father any 
advice. Our positions are dissimilar. I my- 
self seek redress for personal injuries. Your 
father, the Duke of Orleans, ought to obey the 
dictates of his conscience as a prince, and the 
dictates of duty as a citizen." 

This undecided answer led the Duke of Or- 
leans to the decision that, in the prominent po- 
sition which he occupied as a citizen of rank 
and wealth, he could not with honor abandon 
his country in her hour of peril. The Duke of 
Chartres desisted from any further solicitation, 
and, oppressed with much anxiety, returned to 
the army. 

The badge of the Bourbons was a white ban- 
ner. The insurgents, if we may so call the op- 
ponents, of all varieties of opinions, who assailed 



60 Louis Philippe. [1792 



Origin of the Tri-color. 



the ancient despotism, at the siege of the Bas- 
tile, wore red cockades. But very many were 
in favor of monarchy who were also in favor 
of constitutional liberty. Blue had been, in 
ancient times, the royal color, and they adopted 
that. Others, who were in favor of the Bour- 
bons, and advocated reform only, not revolu- 
tion, adopted white, the livery of the Bour- 
bons. Thus arose the celebrated tri-color flag, 
which became the emblem of all m France who 
adopted the principles of political liberalism, 
whether monarchists or republicans. The white 
banner of the Bourbons and the tri-color of the 
revolutionists thus became arrayed against each 
other. 

It was well known that there was a strong 
party in favor of placing the Duke of Orleans 
upon the throne. The king was awaiting his 
trial in the Temple. The monarchy was vir- 
tually overthrown, and a republic was estab- 
lished. The Kepublicans were in great fear of 
a reaction, which might re-establish the throne 
in favor of the Orleans family. It was, there- 
fore, proposed in the Assembly that the Duke 
of Orleans and his sons should be banished 
from France. But it could not be denied that 
the Duke of Orleans had been one of the most 



1792.] The Exile. 61 

The Decree of Banishment. 

prominent leaders in the revolution. He had 
given all his influence, and consecrated his 
immense wealth, to the cause. He had made 
great sacrifices, and had alienated himself en- 
tirely from the royal family, and from the no- 
bility generally, by his bold advocacy of demo- 
cratic principles. Under these circumstances, 
it seemed peculiarly ungrateful to proscribe 
and persecute him, merely because the blood 
of the Bourbons flowed in his veins, and be- 
cause he was born near the throne. 

After a violent discussion in the Assembly, 
the decree of banishment was passed. But the 
friends of the duke rallied, and succeeded, after 
a struggle of two days, in obtaining a reversal 
of the decree. It was known that the Duke of 
Chartres had urged his father to yield to the 
decree, and to retire from France. This in- 
creased the suspicion that the Duke of Char- 
tres was not friendly to the new state of things 
in republican, anarchic, France. 

"It can not be denied," says a French histo- 
rian, "that upon this occasion the young prince 
evinced that high sagacity which, by foreseeing 
events, succeeds in dispersing their dangers. 
He looked upon it that the revocation of the 
decree of banishment against his family wns a 



62 Louis Philippe. [1793. 



Battle of Nerwinde. 



great misfortune; because the name of Orleans 
having been once pronounced suspected and 
dangerous, could never again be useful to their 
country, and would be infallibly persecuted. 
'If we can no longer be useful,' said he, 'and if 
we only give occasion of oflfense, can we hesitate 
in expatriating ourselves?' " 

But, as we have said, the duke decided to 
remain at his post; and his son, returning to 
the army, anxiously awaited events. The Aus- 
trians speedily filled up their depleted ranks 
with reinforcements, and on the 18th of March, 
1793, were again in battle array near the vil- 
lage of Kerwinde. Another terrible battle en- 
sued, in which the Duke of Orleans again won 
many laurels; but victory decided against the 
French. The army of Dumouriez was utterly 
routed. The Duke of Chartres had a horse 
shot from under him; but he spent the whole 
night upon the field, struggling to rally the fu- 
gitives. It was attributed to his heroism that 
the army did not, on that occasion, experience 
an irreparable disaster. 

Greneral Dumouriez now found himself in 
the most painful and perilous position. It was 
not safe for any leader of the Eepublican ar- 
mies to allow himself to be defeated. The loss 



1793.] The Exile. 63 

Charges against Dumouriez. 

of a battle was considered equivalent to treason. 
A committee was sent by the Assembly to spy 
out his conduct. The Moniteur of the 27th of 
March, 1793, contains the following report: 

"We arrived at Tournay on Tuesday, the 
26th. Citizen Proly — who was previously 
known to General Dumouriez — waited upon 
him. He found him at the house of Madame 
Sillery, in company with that lady, the Misses 
Egalite, and Pamela. He was attended, also, 
by Generals Yalence and Chartres. 

"Among other unbecoming observations, 
which he did not hesitate to make, General Du- 
mouriez said that the Convention was the cause 
of air the misfortunes of France; that it was 
composed of 745 tyrants, all regicides ; that he 
was strong enough to bring them to a sense of 
propriety; and that, if they were to call him 
Caesar, Cromwell, or Monk, he was still resolved 
to save his country." 

The publication of this report rendered it 
certain to Dumouriez and his friends that he 
would immediately be arrested and conveyed 
to Paris, under circumstances which would ren- 
der condemnation and execution inevitable. 
He had not an hour to lose. He was supping 
with the Duke of Chartres, anxiously convers- 



64 Louis Philippe. [1793. 



The Flight. 



ing upon the peril in which they both were 
involved, when a courier arrived, summoning 
him immediately to repair to Paris to explain 
his conduct to the Convention. The Duke of 
Chartres said sadly to his general: "This order 
is your death-warrant." As he said this, the 
general was opening another document, and re- 
plied: "Now it is your turn, my young friend; 
this letter incloses a similar invitation for 
you." 

They both mounted their horses, and bidding 
adieu to unhappy France, set out, with a small 
retinue, for the frontier. A detachment of 
dragoons was sent in pursuit of them. By the 
extraordinary sagacity and self-possession of 
Baudoin, the faithful servant of the prince, they 
effected their escape. It is altogether probable 
that Dumouriez was intending, by the aid of 
the army, to overthrow the Convention, and 
re-establish the throne in favor of the Duke of 
Chartres. An anonymous French writer, com- 
menting upon these events, says: 

"We do not hesitate to place among the 
number of the plans of Dumouriez a project 
which did him honor — that of abolishing the 
republican system and erecting a constitutional 
monarchy in favor of the Duke of Chartres. 



1798.] The Exile. 65 

Supposed Plau of Damouriez. 

Many persons have imagined that the Duke of 
Chartres was aware of this design. It is cer- 
tain that in the army, as well as among the 
moderates of the interior, the prince would 
have found a crowd of adherents. But he was 
too conscientious to usurp a crown which had 
just fallen in blood — too good a son to author- 
ize proceedings which would have endangered 
the life of his father; in short, too enlighten- 
ed, too prudent, notwithstanding his extreme 
youth, to be instrumental in any ambitious or 
ill-conceived scheme emanating from such a 
man as Dumouriez. However, whether the 
Duke of Chartres was conscious or not of the 
designs of General Dumouriez, a stern necessity 
rendered a union of their fortunes, indispensa- 
ble for a time." 

The fugitives repaired first to Mons, the head- 
quarters of the Austrians, to obtain their pass- 
ports. Prince Charles urged the duke to en- 
ter the service of the Empire, and to co-operate 
with forei2:n armies and the emio:rants in re- 
Storing monarchy to France. The duke em- 
phatically declined. Indeed, such an act would 
probably have brought his father's head, and 
the head of every member of the family, within 
reach of the Convention, beneath the slide of 

e' 



66 Louis Philippe. [1793. 



Wanderiugs on the Khiue. 



the guillotine. Nothing now remained for the 
prince but exile and poverty. 
■ In the month of April, 1793, the duke, assum- 
ing the name of Mr. Corby, and the appearance 
of an English traveller, accompanied only by 
a servant and his aid-de-camp, Csesar Ducrest, 
commenced travelling in Germany. While the 
Kepublicans assailed him from suspicion of his 
secret hostility to Eepublican principles, the em- 
igrants thoroughly hated both him and his fa- 
ther for the countenance which they had given 
to the Kevolution. The region was full of 
emigrants who would gladly surrender him to 
his enemies. It was necessary for him to prac- 
tise the utmost caution, that he might preserve 
his incognito. In the cities of Liege, Aix-la- 
Chapelle, and Cologne, he did not dare to dine 
at the table d'hote, lest he should be recognized. 

The duke had reached Frankfort, when he 
read the account in the journals of the arrest 
of his father and brothers. Lafayette, laden 
with irons, was pining in the dungeons of 01- 
mutz. Such was the reward which these pa- 
triots received for their devotion to the cause 
of popular liberty. 

Departing from Frankfort, the duke pro- 
ceeded to Basle. From an eminence in the 



1793.] The Exile. 67 

Arrest of the Orleaus family. 

environs of the town the tri-color flag was visi- 
ble, floating in the distance above the battle- 
ments of the fortress of Huninguen. With 
deep emotion the duke saluted the flag of lib- 
erty, for which he had suffered so much, and 
continued his sad journey. At Basle lie learn- 
ed that his sister, accompanied by Madame de 
Genlis, had taken refuge at Schaffhausen, in 
Switzerland. His mother and two brothers, as 
well as his father, had been arrested, and were 
imprisoned in France. Joining his sister and 
Madame de Genlis, the little party of exiles 
proceeded, oppressed with anxiety and grief, to 
Zurich. Here it became necessary for them 
to acquaint the magistrates with their real 
names. 

The emigrant royalists who had taken ref- 
uge there ostentatiously displayed their detesta- 
tion of the democratic prince. At the same 
time, the Helvetic magistrates trembled lest 
they should incur the wrath of Eevolutionary 
France by affording a refuge to the illustrious 
exiles. The Monitem\ of the 12th of June, 
1793, contained the following notice : 

"The ci-devant Duke of Chartres and his 
suite are not in Italy, as had been supposed, 
but reside in a solitary house on the margin 



68 Louis Philippe. [1793. 



Life in Switzerland. 



of Lake Zug, in Switzerland. They pass for 
an Irish family." 

It was on the 14th of May that the sorrowful 
exiles took up their residence upon the banks 
of this silent lake. In Zurich, where they were 
recognized, they had been exposed to many in- 
sults. One evening, as they were walking out, 
an emigrant cavalier purposely caught his spur 
in a portion of the dress of Mademoiselle d'Or- 
leans, rudely tearing it. 

Soon they were again discovered by some 
emigrants who were passing through Zug. A 
dispatch from Berne reproached the authorities 
for their imprudence in allowing the noble 
wanderers an asylum. The magistrates called 
upon the duke and respectfully, but with much 
embarrassment, entreated him to depart from 
their coasts. It was now evident that the par- 
ty could no longer, with safety, reside together. 
The duke succeeded, through some influential 
friends, in obtaining admission for his sister 
into the convent of Sainte Claire, near Brem- 
garten. 

"As for you," said M. de Montjoie to the 
Duke of Chartres, " there is no alternative but 
to wander in the mountains, not sojourning 
long in any place, but pursuing this life of sor- 



1793.] The Exile. 69 

Letter from General Dumouriez. 

row until the circumstances of your country 
shall assume a more favorable aspect. If for- 
tune shall prove propitious, your wanderings 
will be an Odyssey, the details of which will 
one day be collected with avidit}^" 

General Dumouriez, who was also wander- 
ing in obscurity and exile, at this time wrote to 
General Montesquieu, who was a friend of the 
Duke of Chartres, and a gentleman possessed 
of much influence and power in Switzerland : 

"Embrace for me our excellent young friend. 
What you are doing to serve him is worthy of 
you. Let him derive instruction and strength 
from his adversity. This frenzy will pass away, 
and then he will find his place. Induce him 
to make a circumstantial diary of his travels. 
It will be curious to see the diary of a Bour- 
bon treating of other subjects than the chase, 
women, and the table. I am convinced that 
this work, which he will one day produce, will 
serve as a certificate for life, either when he 
shall have re-entered it, or to make him return 
to it." 

Darker and darker grew the path of the ex- 
iled prince. His funds became very low. He 
was separated from all his friends except his 
faithful servant, Baudoin, who absolutely re- 



70 Louis Philippe. [1793. 

Hardships of travel. 

fased to leave him. He retained but one horse. 
His servant chanced to be so sick that he could 
not walk. The duke left Basle on foot, leading 
by the hand the horse upon which his humble 
but faithful companion in exile was mounted.* 

Passing through Neufchatel, Zellen Blatt, and 
Kussnacht, he reached the ruins of Halsburg. 
Here, in the midst of silence and solitude, the 
great-grandson of the brother of Louis XIV. 
sought a refuge from his countrymen, who were 
thirsting for his blood. 

During one of his adventurous excursions 
among the Alps, on foot, accompanied only by 
his servant, he approached the hospitium of 
Saint Gothard. It was on the 28th of August, 
1793. Having rung the bell, a Capuchin friar 
appeared at the casement and inquired, "What 
do you want ?" "I request," replied the duke, 
"some nourishment for my companion and 
myself" "My good young men," said the friar, 
"we do not admit foot-passengers here, partic- 
ularly of your description." "But, reverend 
father," replied the duke, " we will pay what- 
ever 3^ou demand." "No, no," added the Cap- 
uchin, pointing to a shed where some mule- 

* Vie Anecdotique de Louis Philippe. Par MM. A. Lau- 
gier et Carpentier, p. 108. 



1793.] The Exile. 73 

A college professor. 

teers were partaking of Alpine cheese, " tliat 
little inn there is good enough for you." 

At Gordona the duke and his servant met 
with a similar repulse. Covered with the dust 
of travel, and with knapsacks on their backs, 
with night and storm approaching, thej found 
the door of a hostlery closed against them. It 
was not until after much entreaty that the way- 
worn travellers were allowed shelter, with a 
bed of straw, in an outhouse. 

While engaged in these wanderings, the duke 
received a letter from M. de Montesquieu, offer- 
ing him the situation of professor at the college 
of Eeichenau. This was a chateau near the con- 
fluence of the upper and lower Ehine. He was 
then but twenty 3^ears of age. Assuming the 
name of M. Chabaud, he underwent a very rig- 
id examination, without exciting the slightest 
suspicion as to his real character. For eight 
months he discharged the duties of teaching the 
French and English languages with marked 
success, and so secured the respect of the in- 
habitants of Eeichenau that they elected him 
their deputy to the Assembly at Coire. 

Here the tidings reached him of the sad 
fate of his father. Overwhelmed with grief, 
and restless in view of the peril of other mem- 



74 Louis Philippe. [1794. 



Political divisions in France. 



bers of the family, he resumed his wanderings. 
Proceeding to Bremgarten, the residence of 
his influential friend M. de Montesquieu, he re- 
mained with him, as aid-de-camp, until some 
time in the year 1794. 

But it was impossible for a man so widely 
known to remain long concealed in any place. 
There was still an energetic and increasingly 
powerful party in France opposed to the disor- 
ders which the Republic had introduced, and 
anxious to restore monarchical forms. The 
situation of the sister of the Duke of Orleans^ as 
Louis Philippe now became, on the death of 
his father, was considered so unsafe in the con- 
vent of Bremgarten that she was removed to 
Hungary. 

One day, as the duke was sitting silently, 
lost in thought, in a parlor adjoining the one 
occupied by his generous host, he overheard 
some conversation which led him to fear that 
the hospitality which he was receiving might 
endanger the safety of his friend. He imme- 
diately resolved to withdraw from Bremgarten 
and to seek refuge in Hamburg. Here, finding 
his position very insecure, he resolved to hide 
himself in the cheerless climate of Northern 
Europe. Accustomed to the severest priva- 



1794.] The Exile. 75 

The wilds of Scandinavia. 



tions, he was enabled to recommence his wan- 
derings with the slender funds at his disposal. 
Assuming the character of a Swiss traveller, he 
made arrangements to disappear from Southern 
Europe, and seek refuge in the wilds of Scandi- 
navia. He obtained passports from the King 
of Denmark, which allowed him to take with 
him his steadfast friend Count Montjoie, and 
his faithful servant Baudoin, who had shared 
all the sufferings of his exile. A letter of 
credit upon a banker at Copenhagen supplied 
his immediate pecuniary wants. 



76 Louis Philippe. [1794. 



Louis Philippe in Sweden. 



Chapter III. 

Wanderings in the Old World 

AND THE New. 

THE peninsula of Scandinavia can be ex- 
plored at a very slight expense. The ex- 
iled prince, with his companions, travelled in 
the most unostentatious manner. He felt quite 
secure in his wanderings, as but few of the emi- 
grants had penetrated those distant regions. 
From Copenhagen he passed to Elsineur, visit- 
ing all objects of historic interest. Crossing 
the Sound at Helsinbourg, he entered the hos- 
pitable realms of Sweden. After a brief tarry 
at Gottenburg, and ascending Lake Wener, he 
directed his steps towards Norway, remaining 
for a short period at Friedrichsthal, where, in 
1718, the half-mad Charles XIL, after perhaps 
the most stormy life through which a mortal 
ever passed, breathed his last. 

Proceeding to Christiania, he^was received, as 
an intelligent and affable traveller, with much 
distinction, though no one suspected his rank. 



1794.] Wanderings. 77 

His iucognito. 

Wherever be went the purity of his character 
impressed itself upon the community. M. Mo- 
nod — subsequently a distinguished pastor of 
one of the Protestant churches in Paris — was 
then at Christiania. He fully appreciated the 
unusual virtues of his countryman, who, in 
every word and action, manifested the spirit of 
true Christianity. 

" M. Monod has repeatedly since been heard 
to declare," write A. Laugier and Carpentier, 
" that the more the virtuous and instructive 
life of this traveller was examined, the more 
exalted and exemplary it appeared. What 
must have been his surprise when, subsequent- 
ly, in his own country, he recognized in the 
young Frenchman of Christiania, so gentle and 
modest, a prince of the blood standing upon 
the very steps of the throne of France !" 

For some time the duke remained at Chris- 
tiania, receiving many kind attentions. On one 
occasion he dined with a numerous party at a 
banker's in the city. In the evening, at the 
close of the entertainment, as the guests were 
departing, the duke was startled and alarmed 
by hearing the son of the banker, in a loud and 
somewhat playful tone, call out, "The carriage 
of the Duke of Orleans." For a moment he 



78 Louis Philippe. 1794. 

Journeying northward. 

was mucli embarrassed. But perceiving that 
neither the young man nor any of the company 
turned their eyes to him, he recovered his self- 
possession, and calmly inquired of the young 
man, " Why do you call for the carriage of the 
Duke of Orleans? What have you to do with 
him?" 

"Nothing at all," he replied, with a smile; 
" but in a journey which we, not long ago, 
made to Paris, every evening, as we were com- 
ing out of the opera, we heard the people 
shouting on all sides, and with the greatest 
eagerness, ^ La voiture de Monseigneur le Due 
d^ Orleans ! les gens de son Altesse Boy ale T I was 
almost stunned by the noise. At the moment 
it occurred to me to imitate them, instead of 
simply calling for the carriage."* 

Continuing his journey to the north, the 
prince passed through Drontheim and Ham- 
ersfeldt, which latter place was then the most 
northern town in Europe. Some years after, 
when Louis Philippe had ascended the throne 
of France, he sent a clock to the church tower 
in Hamersfeldt, in graceful recognition of his 
hospitable reception there as a stranger. 

Continuing along the coast of Korway, he 

* Vie Anecdotiqiie de Louis Philippe, p. 120. 



1795.] Wanderings. 81 



Court ball of Kiug Gustavus. 



reached the Gulf of Salten, and visited the 
world-renowned Maelstrom. Taking an Ice- 
lander, by the name of Holm, as his guide, he 
entered Lapland. Thus journeying, he, on 
the 21:th of August, 1795, reached North Cape, 
the extreme northern point of Europe, within 
eighteen degrees of the ISTorth Pole. It is said 
that no Frenchman had ever before visited 
those distant and frigid regions^ Here the 
duke remained for several weeks, enjoying the 
hospitality of the simple-hearted inhabitants — 
winning their confidence by his affability, and 
deeply interested in studying their mannei^ 
and customs. 

Then, turning directly south, accompanied 
by several of the natives, he reached Tornev, 
on the extreme northern shore of the Gulf of 
Bothnia. Thence he traversed the eastern 
shores of the gulf for many weary leagues,' to 
Abo, in Finland, where he embarked for the 
Aland Islands, and reached Stockholm the lat- 
ter part of October. Here, notwithstanding all 
his endeavors to preserve his incognito, his cu- 
riosity to witness a grand court ball, given in 
honor of the birth-day of King Gustavus IL, 
led to his recognition by the French envoy at 
that court, though he had adopted the precau- 

F 



82 Louis Philippe. [1795. 



Despotism of the Directory. 



tion of entering the highest gallery in the ball- 
room. 

The king, being informed of his presence, 
immediately dispatched a messenger to say 
that his majesty would be happy to see the 
duke. The kindest attentions were lavished 
upon him. From such attentions he deemed 
it prudent to escape, and speedily resumed his 
wanderings — searching out and carefully ex- 
amining all objects of historical interest Ee- 
crossing the Sound, he returned to Hamburg, 
by the way of Copenhagen and Eubeck. The 
Eevolution was still running riot in France. 
The duke, having exhausted the resources at 
his disposal, found himself in truly an embar- 
rassing situation. 

The Directory was at that time ruling France 
with despotic sway. Ever trembling in fear 
of a reaction, the Directors would gladly place 
beneath the slide of the guillotine any one in 
whose veins there ran a drop of royal blood. 
Fearful of the great influence of the house of 
Orleans, even when its property was seques- 
tered, and its members were in prison or in 
exile, the greatest efforts had been made, by 
means of secret agents, to find Gut the retreat 
of Louis Philippe. At h ngth^ uy some meansj 



1795.] Wanderings. 83 

The duke urged to join the emigrants. 

they discovered him in the small town of Fred- 
erichstadt, in Holstein. His two brothers were 
then in prison in Marseilles, in hourly danger 
of being dragged to the guillotine, upon which 
their father had perished. 

The Directory proposed to the Duchess of 
Orleans, who was imprisoned in Paris, and to 
Louis Philippe, now the head of the family, 
that if the duke and his brothers would embark 
for America, leaving Europe, the two impris- 
oned princes should be restored to liberty, and 
the sequestrated property of the family should 
be refunded. 

Louis XYIIT., also an emigrant, in the bo- 
som of the armies of Austria, and surrounded 
by the armed nobility of France, had previous- 
ly, through an envoy, urged Louis Philippe 
to join the emigrants, in their attempt, by the 
aid of the sword of foreigners, to re-establish 
the throne of France. But the prince was not 
willing to bear arms against his native land. 

The agents of the Directory, who now ap- 
ptoached the prince, presented him a letter 
from his mother. Her husband had suffered a 
cruel death from the executioner. Her two 
sons were in hourly peril of the same fate. 
Her eldest son and her daughter were in exile, 



84 Louis Philippe. [1795. 

Letter from the duchess to her son. 



wandering in poverty, she knew not where. 
She herself was a captive, cruelly separated 
from all her family, exposed to many insults, 
and liable, at any hour, to suffer upon the scaf- 
fold the same fate which her queen, Maria An- 
toinette, and many others of the noblest ladies 
of France had already endured. 

The affectionate heart of this amiable wom- 
an was lacerated with anguish. She wrote a 
letter to her son, which was intrusted to the 
agents in search of him, imploring him, in the 
most affecting terms, to rescue the family, by a 
voluntary exile to America, from its dreadful 
woes and perils. In the letter she wrote : 

" May the prospect of relieving the misfor- 
tunes of your distressed mother, of mitigating 
the sorrows of your family, and of contributing 
to restore peace to your unhappy country, re- 
ward your generosity." 

The duke, upon the reception of this letter, 
decided at once to embark for America. To 
his mother he wrote: "When my beloved 
mother shall have received this letter, her conl- 
mands will have been executed, and I shall 
have sailed for America. I shall embark in 
the first vessel destined for the United States. 
I no longer think that happiness is lost to me 



1796.] Wanderings. 85 

Embarkation for America. 

while I have it in m}^ power to alleviate the - 
sorrows of a cherished mother, whose situation 
and sufferings have for a long time rent mj 
heart.""^ 

On the 24th of September, 1796, the Duke 
of Orleans embarked at Hamburg in an Amer- 
ican vessel, " The America," then a regular 
packet plying between that port and Philadel- 
phia. Still retaining his incognito, he repre- 
sented himself as a Dane, and obtained Danish 
passports. He paid thirty-five guineas for his 
passage, and took with him his ever-faithful 
servant Baudoin, for whom he paid seventeen 
and a half guineas. A favorable passage of 
twenty -seven days landed them at Philadel- 
phia, on the 21st of October, 1796. 

We have not space here to describe the 
cruel sufferings of the two younger brothers of 
Louis Philippe during their captivity. The 
elder of the two, the Duke of Montpensier, was 
but seventeen years of age; the younger. Count 
Beaujolais, was but thirteen. The brothers 
were confined separately, in dark, fetid dun- 
geons, and were not allowed any communica- 
tion with each other. .^ The health of Beaujo- 
lais soon began to suffer, and it was evident 

* A. Laugier et Carpentier, p. 13^, 



S^ Louis Philippe. [1796. 



Sufferings of the young princes. 



that he must die unless he could have fresh 
air. The Duke of Montpensier writes, in his 
touching autobiography : 

"My brother Beaujolais was consequently 
permitted to spend two or three hours each 
day in the open air, and was then remanded 
to his dungeon. His cell being above mine, he 
was obliged to pass my door on his way out, 
and he never failed to call out, 'Good -day, 
Montpensier ; how are you ?' It is impossible 
to describe the effect his gentle voice had upon 
me, or the distress I felt when a day passed 
without ray hearing it; for he was sometimes 
actually forbidden to utter these words, and 
was always hurried by so quickly that he had 
scarce time to hear m}^ answer. Once, howev- 
er, that he was permitted to remain until my 
dinner was brought, he kept so close to the 
heels of the basket -bearer that, in spite of the 
administrators, who tried to hold him back, he 
darted into my cell and embraced me. It was 
six weeks since I had seen him — six wretched 
weeks. The moment was precious, but how 
short ! He was torn from me forthwith, with 
threats of being no more allowed to go out 
should the same scene be repeated. I myself 
was not afterwards permitted, when my cell 



1796.] Wandekings. 87 

Their destitution. 

door was opened, to go near enough to catch 
the breeze which passed up the narrow stair- 
case." 

The princes were not allowed to see the 
public journals, or to receive from their friends 
any letters which had not been previously ex 
amined by their jailers. They were left in en- 
tire ignorance of their father's execution until 
some time after his head had fallen. When the 
awful tidings were conveyed to them, both of 
the young princes, weakened by imprisonment 
and misery, fainted away. The hatred with 
which they were pursued is evinced by the 
epithet of wolves' cuhs, which was ever applied 
to them in the clubs of the Jacobins. Eight 
francs a day were allowed for their support. 
Their mother had sent to them, for their im- 
mediate necessities, twelve thousand francs 
($2400); but the magistrates had seized the 
whole sum. As the weary months rolled on, 
there were variations in the treatment of the 
illustrious prisoners — it sometimes being more 
and sometimes less brutal, but ever marked 
with almost savage ferocity. After the fall of 
Eobespierre, a decree was passed — 

" That the imprisoned members of the Or- 
leans family should have the outer walls of the 



88 Louis Philippe. [1796. 



The attempt to escape. 



fort as the limits of their captivity, the privilege 
of ranging about within those bounds, and in 
future they were not to be locked up in their 
cells." 

The mother of the princes, the Duchess of 
Orleans, who had been in close surveillance in 
the palace of the Luxembourg, in Paris, also 
experienced very considerable alleviation in the 
severity of her treatment. From various quar- 
ters the captives at length obtained funds, so 
that their pecuniary wants were supplied. On 
the 18th of !N'ovember, 1795, the princes made 
a desperate but unavailing effort to escape. 
The breaking of a rope by which Montpensier 
was endeavoring to let himself down, outside 
of the walls, precipitated him from a great 
height to the ground, very seriously breaking 
one of his legs. He was recaptured, and suf- 
fered terribly from mental and bodily anguish. 
His brother, Beaujolais, having effected his 
escape, learning of the misfortune which had 
befallen his brother, returned, with true broth- 
erly love, to voluntary captivity, that he might 
do something to cheer the sufferer. 

Upon the return of Beaujolais, the com- 
mandant of the prison said, exultingly, to the 
Duke of Montpensier, who was writhing upon 



1796.] Wanderings. 89 

strong affection for each other. 

a bed of bodily suffering and of mental an- 
guish : 

"Your young brother is again my prisoner 
in the fortress, and burns with anxiety to see 
you. You are henceforth to be confined sepa- 
ratel}^, and will no longer have an opportunity 
to communicate with each other." 

The two brothers were allowed one short in- 
terview. "Ah, brother," said Beaujolais, "I 
fear we shall derive no benefit from what I 
have done, for we are to be confined separate- 
ly. But without you it was impossible for me 
to enjoy liberty." 

For forty days Montpensier was confined to 
his bed. It was a year and a half before he 
entirely recovered the use of his broken limb. 
Thus three years of almost unmitigated wretch- 
edness passed away. There were many mas- 
sacres in the prison ; and often it seemed that- 
miraculous interposition alone had saved them 
from a bloody death. Grradually the horrors 
of the Eeign of Terror seemed to subside. The 
captive princes were allowed to occupy a room 
together, and that a comfortably furnished 
apartment in the fort, overlooking the sea. It 
was under these circumstances that the mother 
consented to their banishment to America, as 



90 Louis Philippe. [1796. 



The release of the captives. 



the condition of their liberation. The Direct- 
ory, however, would not open their prison doors 
until it had received official intelligence of the 
embarkation of Louis Philippe. 

Immediately upon being satisfied that the 
Duke of Orleans had sailed from Hamburg, 
the authorities prepared to release the princes 
from their captivity, and to send them also to 
the New World. When all things were ready, 
General Willot, a humane man, who had ar- 
rived at Marseilles with extensive powers, in- 
formed them that the hour for their release had 
come. 

"The prisoners at first could scarcely credit 
their senses. They looked steadfastly at each 
other; then, throwing themselves into each 
other's arms, they began to cry, laugh, leap 
about the room, and for several minutes con- 
tinued to manifest a temporary derangement." 

It would still be a few days before the ves- 
sel would sail. Jacobinical fury was such in 
Marseilles that it was not safe for the princes 
to appear in public, lest they should be torn in 
pieces by the mob. They were therefore re- 
moved to the house of the American consul, 
Mr. Cathalan, who had manifested almost a 
brotherly interest in their welfare. 



1796.J Wanderings. 91 

The contrast. 

"It is impossible to describe," writes the 
Duke Montpensier, in his autobiography, "the 
sensations I experienced in crossing the draw- 
bridge, and contrasting the present moment 
with the frightful occasions on which I had 
passed it before; the first time, on my entrance 
into that dismal fortress, where I had been im- 
mured for nearly three years of my life ; and 
the second, on my unfortunate attempt to es- 
cape from it and recover my liberty. The 
gratifying reflection that I now trod on it for 
the last time could with difficulty impress it- 
self upon my mind ; and I could not avoid fan- 
cying that the whole was a sleeping vision, the 
illusion of which I was every moment appre- 
hensive of seeing dissipated. On our exit 
from the fort, we were received by a strong de- 
tachment of grenadiers, who conducted us to 
the sloop." 

Being thus placed under the protection of 
the stars and stripes, the soldiers of the Di- 
rectory left them, and they repaired immedi- 
ately from the vessel to the house of the Amer- 
ican consul, where several friends had assem- 
bled to greet them. 

"Here," continues M. Montpensier in his 
journal, " we passed very agreeably the few 



92 Louis Philippe. [1796. 



Blending of joy and anxiety. 



days that remained before the departure of 
the vessel for America. We were, indeed, true 
birds of the night — only venturing out after 
dusk; but our days passed happily enough. 
Still, we were too near that abode of misery, the 
fort, which, we never ceased to think of without 
anguish. And so apprehensive were we of a 
sudden change in the sentiments of the exist- 
insf Government, or an actual revolution in the 
Grovernment itself, that our anxiety to depart 
was almost insupportable. At last we were in- 



formed that the vessel would sail the following 
day. The effect of this joyous news was the 
total loss of our rest during the night. Seven 
o'clock in the morning of the 5th of Novem- 
ber, 1796, found us awake and in transports of 
delight at being permitted to take wings and 
fly to some land of toleration and liberty, since 
our own had ceased to be such. 

" The citizens of Marseilles, being informed 
of our intended departure, assembled in crowds 
to see us embark. The ramparts of the fort 
were lined, the windows filled. Almost all 
congratulated us upon the recovery of our lib- 
erty. Some envied us our lot; while a few, 
nndoulytedly, wished that the sea might ingulf 
us where its depth was greatest, and rid France 



1797.] Wanderings. 93 

The long and stormy voyage. 

of two members of the proscribed and hated 
race. The anchor was raised, and the sails 
were set. A favorable breeze springing up, 
we soon lost sight of that country in which we 
had been victims of a persecution so relentless, 
but for whose prosperity and happiness we 
never ceased to offer up our prayers to heaven." 

The voyage was long and stormy. It was 
not until after the expiration of ninety -two 
days that the vessel, the "Jupiter," reached 
Philadelphia, in February, 1797. Here, with 
inexpressible emotions of joy, they found their 
brother awaiting their arrival. They took up 
their residence in a humble house in Walnut 
Street, between Fourth and Fifth streets, ad- 
joining the church ; from which they soon re- 
moved to a house which they rented from the 
Spanish consul, in Sixth Street. 

Philadelphia was then the seat of the Feder- 
al Grovernment. The incognito of the princes 
was removed, and they were received with 
marked respect and attentions. They were 
present when Washington delivered his Fare- 
well Address to Congress, and also witnessed 
the inauguration of President Adams. The 
funds of the princes, though not large, enabled 
them to meet their frugal expenses. In the 



94 Louis Philippe. [1797. 

Visit to Mount Vernou. 

early summer tlie three princes — accompanied 
by the faithful servant Baudoin, who had ac- 
companied Louis Philippe in all his wander- 
ings — set out on horseback to visit Baltimore 
and other Southern cities. The present City 
of Washington did not then exist. They, 
however, visited Georgetown, where they were 
hospitably entertained by Mr. Law. 

Passing through Alexandria, they took the 
road to Mount Yernon, where they had been in- 
vited to pass a few days with perhaps the most 
illustrious man of modern ages. Washington, 
with whom they had become acquainted in 
Philadelphia, and who had invited them to his 
house, received them with the greatest kind- 
ness. The modest, gentlemanly, heroic charac- 
ter of these remarkable young men deeply im- 
pressed him. He furnished them with letters 
of introduction, and drew up an itinerary of 
their journey, south and west, directing their 
attention to especial objects of interest. 

In those early days, and through that wild, 
almost uncultivated country, travelling was 
attended with not a little difficulty and with 
some danger. Mounted on horseback, with all 
their baggage in saddle-bags, the princes took 
leave of their honored host, and rode, by the 



1797.] Wanderings. 95 

The republican Landlord. 



way of Leesburg and Harper's Ferry, to Win- 
chester, where they were entertained in the cel- 
ebrated inn of Mr. Bush. An American has 
in the following terms described the character 
and appearance of this celebrated landlord : 

"I have him in my mind's eye as he was then, 
portly, ruddy, though advanced in life, with a 
large, broad -brimmed hat, and with his full 
clothes of the olden time, looking the very 
patriarch of his establishment. He had two 
houses — one for his family, and the other for 
his guests; and there was no resting-place in 
all that rich valley more frequented by travel- 
lers than his. It was a model of neatness and 
comfort, and the excellent man who built it up, 
and who continued it more from the desire of 
employment than from the love of gain, seemed 
to consider the relations subsisting between the 
traveller and himself as a favor to the former 
rather than to the latter." 

Mr. Bush had been in Manheim, which Lou- 
is Philippe had recently visited, and he could 
speak German. This created quite an intimacy 
between guest and host, and led to a long con- 
versation. The journey had been rough, the 
exposure great, and the youngest brother, un- 
accustomed to such fatigue, was greatly ex- 



96 Louis Philippe. [1797. 

Driven from the iun. 

haiisted. The Duke of Orleans, who watched 
over his brother with parental tenderness, out 
of regard to his prostration, asked the privi- 
lege, so common in Europe, of having their 
dinner served to them in their own room. The 
pride of the republican inn-keeper was touched. 

''Such a request," writes Gr. N. Wright, " had 
never been heard in the fair and fertile vale of 
Shenandoah, or, at all events, within the limits 
of Bush's Winchester Hotel. It infringed his 
rules; it wounded his professional pride; it 
assailed his very honor. The recollection of 
Manheim, and the pleasant days he had passed 
there — the agreeable opportunity of living over 
those hours again in the conversation of the 
Duke of Orleans — the gentle conduct of the 
three young strangers — were all, in a moment 
of extravagant folly, passion, and intractable- 
ness, forgotten, flung to the winds, when, with 
a scornful air, he addressed Louis Philippe : 

" ' Since you are too good to eat at the same 
table with my guests, you are too good to eat in 
my house. I desire, therefore, that you leave 
it instantly.' ""^ 

In vain did the Duke of Orleans endeavor to 

* Life and Times of Louis Philippe, by Rev. G. N. Wrightj 
p. 21. 



1797.] Wandekings. 97 



Journeying in the wilderness. 



explain and convince his irate host that he 
intended no disrespect. The wearj travellers 
were compelled immediately to leave, and to 
seek hospitality elsewhere. Continuing their 
journey through a variety of adventures, some 
amusing and some painful, they passed through 
Staunton, Abington, and Knoxville, and reach- 
ed Nashville, in Tennessee. After a short tarry 
here, they continued their ride through Louis- 
ville, Lexington, Maysville, Chilicothe, Lancas- 
ter, Zanesville, Wheeling, to Pittsburg, in Penn- 
sylvania. Their accommodations in these vast 
wilds were often of the humblest kind. The 
three brothers often slept on the floor, wrapped 
in their cloaks, in some wretched hut, with 
their feet towards the blazing fire, while their 
landlord and his wife occupied the only bed in 
the only room. 

At Pittsburg the travellers rested for several 
days. From that place the princes directed 
their steps to Buffalo, skirting, for some dis- 
tance, the shores of Lake Erie. At Cattarau- 
gus they were the guests, for one night, of the 
Seneca Indians. They felt some anxiety in 
reference to their baggage, the loss of which, in 
those distant regions, would have been a seri- 
ous calamity.' The chief, perceiving their so- 

G 



98 Louis Philippe. [1797. 



Indian hospitality. 



licitude, said that he would be personally re- 
sponsible for every article which might be com- 
mitted to his care, but for nothing else. After 
a little reflection, the duke placed in his hands 
saddles, bridles, blankets, clothes, and money — 
every thing, except a beautiful dog, which he 
did not think of including in the inventory. 
All were restored in the morning, excepting 
that the dog was missing. "If the dog," said 
the chief, " had been intrusted to my care, it 
would have been waiting your departure." 
With some difficulty the favorite animal was 
reclaimed. 

At Buffalo the travellers crossed the head of 
the Niagara Kiver, and, passing down the Ca- 
nadian shore, visited the world-renowned falls. 
On their way, they passed a night in the huts 
of the Chippewa Indians. The following ex- 
tracts, written by the Duke of Montpensier to 
his sister, throw much light upon the character 
of these excellent young men. It was dated 
August 14, 1797 : 

" I hope you have received the letters which 
we wrote to you from Pittsburg about two 
months ago. We were then in the midst of a 
long journey, which we have terminated only 
fifteen days since. It occupied us four months 



1797.] V'andeeings. 99 

Letter from the Duke of Montpensier. 

We journeyed during all that time a thousand 
leagues, and always upon the same horses, ex- 
cept the last hundred leagues, which we per- 
formed partly by water, partly on foot, partly 
on hired horses, and partly by stage, or the 
public conveyance. 

" We have seen many Indians, and we re- 
mained even many days in their country. They 
are, in general, the best people in the world, 
except when they are intoxicated or inflamed 
by passion. They received us with great kind- 
ness; and our being Frenchmen contributed 
not a little to this reception, for they are very 
fond of our nation. The most interesting ob- 
ject we visited, after the Indian villages, was 
certainly the Cataract of Niagara, which I 
wrote you word from Pittsburg that we were 
going to see. It is the most astonishing and 
majestic spectacle I have ever witnessed. I 
have made a sketch of it, from which I intend 
to make a water-color drawing, which our dear 
little sister shall certainly see at our beloved 
mother's home. 

" To give you an idea of the agreeable man- 
ner in which the}^ travel in this country, I must 
tell you, dear sister, that we passed fourteen 
nights in the woods, devoured by all kinds of 



100 Louis Philippe. [1797. 

Hardships of travel. 



insects, often wet to the bone, without being 
able to dry ourselves, and our only food being 
pork, a little salt beef, and maize bread. In- 
dependently of this adventure, we were forty 
or fifty nights in miserable huts, where we were 
obliged to lie upon a floor made of rough tim- 
ber, and to endure all the taunts and murmur- 
ing of the inhabitants, who often turned us out 
of doors, often refused us admission, and whose 
hospitality was always defective. I should 
never recommend a similar journey to any 
friend of mine ; yet we are far from repenting 
what we have done, since we have all three 
brought back excellent health and more expe- 
rience. 

"Adieu, beloved and cherished sister — so 
tenderly loved. Keceive the embraces of three 
brothers, whose thoughts are constantly with 
you." 

»As the travellers were proceeding from Buf- 
falo to Canandaigua, over a country so rude 
that they suffered more than on any other part 
of their journey, they met Mr. Alexander Bar- 
ing, afterwards Lord Ashburton, whose ac- 
q^uaintance they had made in Philadelphia. 
Mr. Baring was on a tour to Niagara, from 
which the princes were returning. His patience 



1797.] Waxdeeincs. 101 

Retnrii to Philadelphia. 

was quite exhausted by the hardships he was 
enduring on the way; and he expressed the 
doubt whether the sight of Niagara could re- 
pay one for such excessive toil and privation. 
His experience must, indeed, have been differ- 
ent from that of the modern tourist, who glides 
smoothly along in the palace-cars. Arriving 
at Greneva, they took a boat and sailed up Sen- 
eca Lake to its head ; whence they crossed 
over to Tioga Point, on the Susquehanna. 
The last twenty-five miles of this trip they ac- 
complished on foot, each one carrying his bag- 
gage. Passing through the country, in almost 
a direct line, by the way of Wilkesbarre, they 
returned to Philadelphia. 

Soon after their return the yellow -fever 
broke out in Philadelphia with great malig- 
nity, in July, 1797. The princes had expend- 
ed on their long journey all their funds, and 
were impatiently awaiting remittances from 
Europe. They were thus unable to withdraw 
from the pestilence, from which all who had 
the means precipitately fled. It was not un- 
til. September that their mother succeeded in 
transmitting to them a remittance. 

With these fresh resources they commenced a 
journey to the Eastern States, passing through 



102 Louis Philippe. [1797. 



Crossins: the Allesrhauies. 



the States of New York, Connecticut, Ehode 
Island, and Massachusetts, to Boston ; and it is 
said that thej extended their travels to Hallo- 
well, in the District of Maine, to call upon the 
Vaughans, an illustrious family from England, 
then residing there. 

Louisiana at that time belonged to Spain. 
The exiles decided to cross the country to the 
Ohio, descend the river to New Orleans, and 
thence to proceed to Havana, on the island of 
Cuba, by some Spanish vessel. Eeturning to 
Philadelphia, they set out, on the 10th of De- 
cember, 1797, to cross the Alleghanies. Upon 
those heights and gorges winter had already 
set in, and the cold was very severe. Just be- 
fore leaving, they learned that the Directory 
had passed a decree banishing every member 
of the Bourbon family from France, including 
their mother, who w^as a Bourbon only by mar- 
riage, and that their mother had taken refuge 
in Spain. At that time Spain was in alliance 
with France, and the British Government was 
consequently at war against it. 

At Pittsburg they found the Alleghany still 
open, but the Monongahela was frozen over. 
They purchased a small keel-boat, which they 
found lying upon the ice, and with considera- 



1797.] Wanderings. 103 

Floating down the river. 

ble difficulty transported it to a point where 
they could launch it in the open water, though 
the stream was encumbered with vast masses 
of floating ice. Then the three brothers, with 
but three attendants, embarked to float down 
the Ohio and the Mississippi, through an almost 
unbroken wilderness of nearly two thousand 
miles, to New Orleans. When they arrived at 
Wheeling, Virginia, where there was a small 
settlement, they found their way hedged up by 
solid ice, which filled the stream from shore to 
shore. They drew their boat upon the land, 
to wait for an opening through this effectual 
barricade. Louis Philippe, with characteristic 
energy, impatient of delay, ascended an emi- 
nence, and, carefully surveying the windings of 
the river, found that the obstruction of ice oc- 
cupied only about three miles, beyond which 
the stream was clear. 

Watching their opportunity, they forced their 
way through some miles of broken ice, and con° 
tinned their adventurous voyage. An Amer- 
ican military courier, less energetic, was detain- 
ed three weeks by the obstructions which the 
French party thus speedily overcame. At Ma- 
rietta, Ohio, they found another small village. 
Here they landed to lay in supplies ; and they 



104 Louis Philippe. [1798. 



Welcome in New Orleans. 



spent some time in examining those Indian 
mounds so profusely scattered there — interest- 
ing memorials of an extinct race. 

Continuing their voyage amidst the masses 
of ice which still encumbered these northern 
waters, they one day, through the negligence of 
their helmsman, ran against a branch of a tree, 
termed a snag^ and stove in their bows. The 
boat was immediately unloaded, drawn upon 
the shore, and in twenty-four hours was so re- 
paired as to enable them to continue their jour- 
ney. As they entered more southern latitudes 
the floating ice disappeared, and the voyage 
becam.e more pleasant, as they rapidly floated 
down the tortuous stream, by forests and head- 
lands, and every variety of wild, sublime, and 
beautiful scenery, until they reached New Or- 
leans, on the 17th of February, 1798. 

Here they met with a very friendly welcome, 
not only from the colonists generally, but from 
the Spanish governor, Don Gayoso. They 
were detained in New Orleans five weeks, await- 
ing the arrival of the corvette which was en- 
gaged in conveying passengers and light freight 
from that port to Havana. Impatient of the 
delay, as the packet did not arrive, they em- 
barked in an American vessel. England was 



1798.] Wanderings. 105 



AiTO<xance of the Bi'itish Government. 



then truly mistress of the seas. Slie made and 
executed her own laws, regardless of all expos- 
tulations from other nations. 

As the American vessel was crossing the 
Gulf of Mexico, she was encountered by an 
English frigate, which, by firing several guns, 
brought her to, and immediately boarded her. 
The British Government had adopted the very 
extraordinary principle that an English ship 
might stop a ship, of whatever nationality, on 
the seas, board her, summon her passengers 
and crew upon the deck, and impress, to serve 
as British seamen, any of those passengers or 
crew whom the officers of the frigate might 
pronounce to be British subjects. From their 
decision there was no appeal. 

" The princes," says the Eev. G. N. Wright, 
" had an opportunity of witnessing one of those 
violations of international law which not only 
marked but degraded the maritime history of 
that period, by the gross sacrifice of public law 
and private liberty. This was the seizure and 
impressment of men employed on board neu- 
tral vessels, and compelling them to enter the 
navy of a foreign country. The crew, being 
mustered on the deck. Captain Cochrane select- 
ed the ablest bands from among them — taking 



106 Louis Philippe. [1798. 

Action of the French Goverumeut. 

them on a service in which they not only had 
no interest, but with which some of them were 
actually at variance, and might, therefore, be 
compelled to fight against their own country. 

" It is not the least strange, of all the strange 
events which have occurred in those days of 
change, that a young man, a passenger on board 
an American ship, and who was brought by cir- 
cumstances in contact with the practical opera- 
tion of the iniquitous claim which Great Brit- 
ain set up — of taking out of vessels sailing 
under the American flag any person they 
pleased — should have been called upon subse- 
quently, when upon the throne of France, by 
the English Government to disavow the forci- 
ble abduction of a seaman from an Enoljsh 

o 

ship." 

Many years after this, when Louis Philippe 
was king of the French, a French frigate, from 
a squadron blockading Yera Cruz, boarded an 
English packet-ship, and took out of her a 
Mexican pilot. All England resounded with 
a burst of indignation. Both Houses of Par- 
liament passed a decree that such an act was a 
gross outrage upon the British flag, which de- 
manded immediate apology from the French 
Government. 



1798.] Wanderings. 107 



The "right of search.' 



"The pilot," said Lord Lyndhurst, "had 
come on board, under the protection of the 
British flag. But in this instance it was no 
protection. A more grave and serious out- 
rage was never committed against our coun- 
try." 

"Any man," said Lord Brougham, "on 
board a British merchantman is as much un- 
der the protection of the British flag as if he 
were on board the queen's ship. The grave- 
men of the charge is that a man has been taken 
from an English ship^ 

Louis Philippe, who deemed it essential to 
the stability of his throne to maintain friendly 
relations with the British Government, humbly 
disavowed the act in the name of his country, 
while he considerately forbore from taunting 
the British Government with its own opposite 
and arbitrary course, or from congratulating 
it upon the happy change of principles which 
it had so suddenly experienced. 

Captain Cochrane, learning that the Duke 
of Orleans, with his brothers, the Duke of 
Montpensier and Count Beaujolais, were on 
board the small and uncomfortable American 
vessel, politely invited them to continue the 
remainder of their voyage in the enjoyment 



108 Louis Philippe. [1798. 

Narrow escape. 

of the superior accommodations of bis large 
and commodious ship. The deck of the frig- 
ate towered far above that of the humble 
American merchantman. A rope was low- 
ered to assist the travellers in their ascent. 
The Duke of Orleans slipped his hold and fell 
into the sea. Being an excellent swimmer, he 
swam around to the stern of the ship, where a 
boat was lowered, which rescued him from his 
unwelcome bath. On the 31st of March, 1798, 
the British frigate landed them safely in Ha- 
vana. 



1799.] Tomb and Bridal. 109 

The antagonistic parties. 



Chapter IV, 
The Tomb and the Bridal. 

THE position of the French princes was pe- 
culiarly embarrassing. Both of the par- 
ties into which all the nations of Europe 
were then divided suspected and feared them. 
The Koyalists could not forget that the father 
of the princes had taken the title of Egalite, 
had renounced all feudal privileges, had voted 
for the death of the king, and had placed him- 
self at the head of the democratic movement 
in France. 

The liberal or democratic party could not 
forget that the young princes were by birth 
in the highest ranks of the nobility, that by 
blood relationship they were nearly connected 
with the crown, that their whole family had 
been so utterly crushed by democratic rule 
that they could not but hate that rule, and 
that there was a party in France, sustained by 
many of the courts in Europe, in favor of re- 
action and of re-establishing the throne with 



110 Louis Philippe. [1799. 

Driven from Cuba. 

the young Duke of Orleans as king. Thus 
the Orleans princes were alike suspected and 
feared by both parties. 

The government in Madrid was in entire 
sympathy with the aristocratic party in Eu- 
rope. Though the Orleans princes had been 
received in Cuba, by the Spanish authorities 
and leading citizens, with much attention, as 
the victims of democratic fury, the govern- 
ment of Madrid, remembering only the de- 
mocracy of Egalite, and fearing that the 
princes, retaining their father's principles, 
might unfurl the dreaded tri-color in Havana, 
sent an order dated May 21, 1799, ordering 
the captain-general of the island not to permit 
any longer the presence of the dukes of Or- 
leans and of Montpensier, and of their broth- 
er, Count Beaujolais, but to send them imme- 
diately to 'New Orleans, without any regard 
to their mode of subsistence. 

Under these circumstances the exiles, with- 
drawing from Cuba, succeeded in reaching the 
Bahama Islands, which belonged to England, 
and thence sailed for Halifax. The Duke of 
Kent, son of George III., and father of Queen 
Victoria, was then in Halifax, and received 
them with guarded and formal courtesy. Not 



1800.] Tomb and Bridal. Ill 



Take refuse in Eufrland. 



certain what might be the feelings of the Brit- 
ish Cabinet in reference to them, he did not 
feel authorized to grant them a passage to 
England on board a British vessel of war. 
They, therefore, embarked in a small vessel for 
New York, and there took passage in a regular 
packet-ship for England. 

In the first week in February, 1800, the ship 
reached Falmouth. Immediately the princes 
forwarded a request to Greorge III. that they 
might be permitted to land in England and 
proceed to London. The request was prompt- 
ly granted, and on the sixth of the month they 
reached the capital. To convince the court 
and the nobility of England that they were 
entirely weaned from all those democratic 
tendencies which had brought such awful ruin 
upon their house, they selected Twickenham 
as their place of residence. It was a beautiful 
and salubrious site in the midst of the family 
seats of the English aristocracy, and in the 
vicinity of Windsor Castle, the ancient and 
world-renowned palace of the British kings. 
Here every movement would be open to the 
eyes of the British aristocracy, and the mode 
of life of the princes, their associates, and their 
manner of spending their leisure hours, would 



112 Louis Philippe. [1800. 



Courted by the BourlDons. 



all be known. The spotless and amiable char- 
acter of these young men rapidly secured for 
them the confidence and esteem of all their ac- 
quaintances. 

The unhappy son of Louis XYL, whom the 
Legitimists regarded as their sovereign under 
the title of Louis XYIL, had perished of bru- 
tal treatment in his dungeon, on the 6th of 
June, 1796.* The Legitimists now recognized 
the elder brother of Louis XYL, the Count 
de Provence, as king, with the title of Louis 
XYIII. The Count de Provence, assuming 
all the etiquette of royalty, and recognized by 
nearly all the courts of Europe as the lawful 
sovereign of France, held his court at Mittau, 
in Courland, surrounded by a crowd of emi- 
grant courtiers. His only brother. Count d'Ar- 
tois, who subsequently ascended the throne of 
France as Charles X., resided in London, punc- 
tiliously maintaining court etiquette. 

The Count d'Artois, anxious to secure the 
open and cordial co-operation of the Duke of 

* There have been efforts to prove that the dauphin was 
removed from prison, and another child was substituted in 
his place, who died and was buried. Several claimants have 
risen, professing to be the dauphin. But there is no evi- 
dence upon this point sufficient to change the general verdict 
of history. 




H 



1800.] Tomb and Bridal. 115 

Eeconciliation. 

Orleans in behalf of the Royalist cause, sent 
him an earnest invitation to come to London, 
assuring him of an affectionate greeting on his 
own part and that of his friends. The duke 
repaired to London, and was received on the 
13th of February with princely hospitality by 
the count and other members of the Bourbon 
family, at his residence in Welbeck Street, 
Cavendish Square. 

" The king, Louis XVIIL," said the Count 
d'Artois, "will be delighted to see you; but it 
will be proper and necessary that you should 
first write to him." The Duke of Orleans did 
so. In this letter he must have recognized the 
sovereignty of Louis XYIIL, a sovereignty 
founded on legitimacy, for he received a court- 
eous and cordial reply. Thus there seemed to 
be a perfect reconciliation, social and political, 
between the elder and younger branches of the 
Bourbon family. 

Greneral Dumouriez had visited the court of 
the exiled monarch, pledged to him his hom- 
age, mounted the white cockade, and, receiving 
a commission in the Russian army, was march- 
ing with the Allies against republican France. 
All his energies were consecrated to the resto- 
ration of the house of Bourbon-Orleans. 



116 Louis Philippe. [1800. 



Embarrassments of the princes. 



Count d'Artois left no means untried to in- 
duce the Duke of Orleans and his brothers to 
enlist under the standard of emigration. But 
an instinctive reluctance to unite with foreign- 
ers in their war against France, and the en- 
treaties of their anxious mother that thej 
should not, in those dark and perilous hours, 
commit themselves to the apparently hopeless 
cause of the royal confederacy, led the cautious 
duke to adhere to the life of privacy upon 
which he had entered. But it is scarcely pos- 
sible but that, under the circumstances, both 
he and his brothers must have longed for the 
restoration of the Bourbons, which would have 
enabled them to return to France and to enter 
upon the enjoyment of their exalted rank and 
their vast estates. 

Still, the princes were subject to many hu- 
miliations and annoyances. The partisan press, 
on both sides, assailed them with every species 
of calumny. "The leading ministerial jour- 
nals in London declared openly that they sus- 
pected the sincerity of the young Duke of Or- 
leans in his late repentance ; and that his past 
exemplary conduct should not be accepted as 
any security against his future treachery." 

But the emigrants in London generally, and 



1800.] Tomb and Bridal. 117 

Aristocratic attentions. 

the British Court, assumed to place full reliance 
in the reconciliation between the Bourbon and 
the Orleans branches of the royal family. All 
the arts of flattery were employed to cement 
this union, and to lead the princes to commit 
themselves irreparably to the royal cause. 
England, under the ministry of William Pitt, 
was waging relentless warfare against revolu- 
tionary France. On the 20th of February the 
princes were invited to meet England's most 
renowned prime minister, and the most impla- 
cable foe of republican institutions in France, 
at a, dinner-party, at the town mansion of the 
Count d'Artois. Lord Grenville gave a mag- 
nificent entertainment in their honor, on the 
1st of March, 1800 ; and the next Sunday the 
exiles were presented to his majesty George 
III. at a levee held especially for that pur- 
pose.* 

On the 13th of March the Russian ambas- 
sador, Count Woronzo, following in the train 
of these marked civilities, invited them to a 
princely banquet, which was attended by all 
the aristocracy of London, at his mansion in 
Hariey Street ; and on the 13th of March his 
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales honored 

* Life and Times of Louis Philippe, p. 22. 



118 Louis Philippe. [1800. 

Fashionable life iu London. 

them by an invitation to Carlton House to 
meet all the foreign ambassadors. 

The Orleans princes were now fully intro- 
duced to fashionable life in London. Their 
presence was deemed essential to the complete- 
ness of any soiree or banquet. The Marchion- 
ess of Salisbury, then the arbitress in London 
of fashion and elegance, invited the princes to 
meet at her house four hundred guests of the 
highest rank and distinction, among whom were 
the Prince of Wales. Then the Lady Mayor- 
ess of the city, Lady Harvey Combe, threw open 
to them Egyptian Hall in as magnificent an en- 
tertainment as the times could furnish. Im- 
mediately following this brilliant scene, the 
Duke of Clarence, subsequently William lY., 
invited them to a dinner-party, which in many 
respects surpassed all which had preceded it 
in splendor. All these people who thus feted 
them were combining their energies to over- 
throw revolutionary principles in France, and 
to reinstate the Bourbons. 

At this time the British Cabinet was prepar- 
ing an armed force for the invasion of France by 
a descent on the southern coast. The report 
was circulated that the three Orleans princes 
were to assume the white cockade and accom- 



1800.] Tomb and Bridal. 119 

Domestic habits. 

• . 

pany this military expedition against their na- 
tive country. At the same time, the Bourbon 
princes renewed their solicitations to the Or- 
leans princes to range themselves, with arms 
in their hands, under the standard of emigra- 
tion. But the great victory of Marengo just 
then took place, which threw into the power 
cf the First Consul all of upper Italy, and com- 
pelled the utterly discomfited Austrians to 
withdraw from the British alliance. It was a 
dark hour for the Eoyalist cause in France. 

The exiled princes, who found but little in 
the festivities of London to alleviate their world- 
weariness, or to cheer them in the peculiar em- 
barrassments and trials of their position, after 
several minor adventures, withdrew to their re- 
treat in Twickenham, where they endeavored to 
seclude themselves from observation and from 
all participation in public affairs. 

The Duke of Orleans devoted himself to the 
study of English institutions, visiting the prom- 
inent establishments of learning and of indus- 
try. The irreproachable character of this vir- 
tuous prince, his high intellectual culture, dig- 
nified bearing, amiable disposition, and persist- 
ent refusal to involve himself in any intrigues, 
secured for him general admiration. Months 



120 Louis Philippe. [1807. 



Death of the Duke of Montpensier. 



of tranquillity, almost of happiness, glided 
away. But sorrow is tlie doom of man. The 
Duke of Orleans had not yet drained the cup 
which was prepared for his lips. 

The health of the Duke of Montpensier had 
been for some time rapidly failing. His con- 
stitution and that of his brother, Count Beau- 
jolais, had been quite undermined by the hard- 
ships they had endured during their imprison- 
ment. All the remedies which the best medi- 
cal advice could administer proved unavailing. 
It soon became manifest that death was ap- 
proaching by slow but resistless strides. The 
young duke, conscious that his end was ap- 
proaching, bore all his sufferings with the most 
amiable and uncomplaining resignation, until, 
on the 18th of May, 1807, he fell asleep. 

The grief of the Duke of Orleans and of the 
Count of Beaujolais, m the loss of so gentle and 
tenderly - beloved a brother, was very great. 
The funeral ceremonies were attended in Lon- 
don with almost regal pomp. The Count d'Ar- 
tois was present as one of the principal mourn- 
ers. The gloom of twilight had begun to fall 
upon the city as the imposing procession ap- 
proached Westminster Abbey, to convey the 
remains of the long-suffering prince to the dark- 



1807.] Tomb and Bkidal. 121 

Sickness of Count Beaujolais. 

ness of the tomb. The procession was led by 
mutes bearing plumes of white feathers. A 
mourning-carriage, containing the heart of the 
deceased in an urn, was drawn by six horses, 
decorated with the richest funereal caparisons, 
and led by postilions in the mourning-livery 
of the house of Orleans. The hearse followed, 
preceded by a herald with a coronet on a vel- 
vet cushion. 

The empty private carriage of the deceastd 
was followed by many other carriages filled with 
the noblesse of France, each drawn by six 
horses. The state equipages of the Prince of 
Wales and of the Dukes of Sussex and York, 
with postilions in state livery, closed the pro- 
cession. With such mournful pageants were 
the mortal remains of the exile consigned to 
the ancient mausoleum of the kings of England. 

" Sorrows," says the poet, "come in troops." 
Scarcely were the remains of the Duke of Mont- 
pensier placed in the tomb, ere his brother, 
Count Beaujolais, began rapidly to fail. He 
was urged to seek a milder climate in Malta or 
Madeira. To the solicitations of his fond and 
anxious brother he replied : 

" I feel that my life is soon to terminate as 
Montpensier's did. What is the use of going 



122 Louis Philippe. [1807. 



Death of Count Beaujolais. 



SO far to seek a tomb, and thus to lose the con- 
solation of dying in this retreat where we have 
at last found repose. Let us remain in this 
hospitable land. Here, at least, I shall be per- 
mitted to die in a brother's arms, and share a 
brother's tomb." 

Still, amiably yielding to the anxiety of his 
brother, he consented, against his own judg- 
ment, to accompany him to the island of Malta. 
The climate not agreeing with him, and his 
strength rapidly failing, the Duke of Orleans 
wrote to Ferdinand IV., king of Naples, solicit- 
ing permission to visit the salubrious clime 
where he had established his court. Ferdinand 
lY., flying from the revolution beneath which 
his throne had crumbled, had sought refuge, 
protected by the British fleet, in the old Moor- 
ish castle, called the Palazzo Reale^ near Paler- 
mo, on the island of Sicily. To the application 
of the duke to repair with his dying brother to 
those genial skies, a very cordial consent was 
returned. But before the reply arrived, the 
gentle spirit of Beaujolais had taken its flight 
to join the spirit of Montpensier in the eternal 
world. With tearful eyes and an almost broken 
heart, the bereaved Duke of Orleans deposited 
the wasted remains of his dearly-beloved broth- 



1807.] Tomb and Bridal 123 



The Princess Amelia. 



er in the vaults of the church of St. John, in 
Yaletta. 

Having performed these last sad rites, and 
feeling almost alone and desolate, in a world 
where he had experienced so many sorrows 
and so few joys, influenced by the friendly in- 
vitation of the Sicilian Court, he embarked for 
the island of Sicily, and reached Messina in 
safety. Proceeding to Palermo, he was wel- 
comed with great cordiality to the ancient and 
massive palace. The commanding figure of 
the prince, his finely chiselled features, his dig- 
nified bearing, united with a frank, cordial, un- 
affected address, his intelligence and accom- 
plishments, all combined with that nameless 
charm of a pensive spirit, created by the great- 
est sufferings patiently endured, secured for 
him the admiration and the warmest sympa- 
thy of the Sicilian family. 

The second daughter of the king, the Prin- 
cess Amelia, was a young lady whom all unite 
in describing as possessed of unusual attrac- 
tions of person and character. A strong at- 
tachment almost immediately sprang up be- 
tween them. But the Duke of Orleans was a 
wanderer, an exile, deprived of his patrimo- 
nial estates, and living upon the hospitality 



124 Louis Philippe. [1807. 



Banner of the Empire. 



of others or upon those fragments which by 
chance had been saved from the utter wreck 
of the possessions which had descended to him 
from his ancestors. Should he recover his 
rank and possessions, it would be a suitable 
match. Should he fail, he would prove but a 
needy adventurer. The proud queen was per- 
plexed whether to frown upon or to encourage 
his suit. 

In France the anarchy of the Conventions 
and of the Directory had given place to the 
Consulate and the Empire. Under the saga- 
cious and energetic rule of Napoleon, France 
had risen to dignity and power unequalled by 
that of any other nation in Europe. Napo- 
leon had seized upon the fundamental princi- 
ple of the Revolution, Equal Rights for all Men^ 
and, inscribing that upon his banners, had re- 
organized France with such skill as to enable 
her to bid defiance to despotic Europe in arms 
against that principle. All France seemed 
united in this government of republican prin- 
ciples under monarchical forms^ and, notwith- 
standing the implacable hostility and persist- 
ent coalition of foreign dynasties, all hopes of 
the restoration of the Bourbons seemed to have 
vanished. Ferdinand of Naples and his queen, 



1808.] Tomb and Bridal. 125 

The Duke of Orleans iu the Sicilian Court. 

who was an Austrian princess, and sister of 
Maria Antoinette, had, with great determina- 
tion, espoused the cause of the Allies against 
France. A revolution in their own kingdom, 
aided bj French arms, had driven them from 
the continent of Italy to the island of Sicily, 
where they were protected by an English 
army of twenty thousand men, and by the in- 
vincible fleet of Great Britain, which had en- 
tire command of the seas. 

The position of the Duke of Orleans in the 
Sicilian Court must have been very embarrass- 
ing. Ferdinand, a weak man, and his wife, an 
intriguing, reckless woman, did every thing 
they could to entangle their illustrious visitor, 
and the suitor of their daughter, in the meshes 
of the intrigues in which they were ever in- 
volved. Napoleon had shown a very decided 
disposition to conciliate the Orleans family, 
and to restore to them their possessions if he 
could have any assurance that the vast influ- 
ence which they would thus possess would 
not be used in the attempt to overthrow the 
republican empire which France had so cor- 
dially accepted. The cautious duke felt that 
it would be the height of folly to hurl him- 
self against a power which seemed irresistible. 



126 Louis Philippe. [1808. 



Spanish intrigues. 



The Spanish Court had treacherously, while 
professing friendship for France, entered into 
a conspiracy with the Allies to strike her in 
the back in the anticipated hour of disaster. 
The Spanish war ensued, into the merits of 
which we have no space here to enter. The 
king and queen of Sicily hoped to place upon 
the throne of Spain their son Leopold ; and 
they urged the Duke of Orleans to go to Spain, 
and, under the patronage of England, to take 
command of an army for the invasion of France. 

Influenced by these importunities, the duke 
repaired with evident reluctance to Gibraltar ; 
but seeing no chance for Leopold, he passed 
over to England to confer with the British 
Cabinet."^ The duke was a Frenchman, and, 
instead of being cordially received in Spain, 
found himself in danger of being mobbed by 
the ignorant and fanatic populace. Lord Col- 
lingwood wrote to the British Government, in 

* " I have another great puzzle come to me. The Queen 
of Sicily has sent her son, Prince Leopold, to Gibraltar to 
propose himself to be regent of Spain. It appears to me to 
be extreme want of knowledge of the state of Spain. The 
Duke of Orleans came down with him, and on the 13th of 
August I discussed the subject fully with his highness, much 
to his satisfaction, and he went off to England with a light 
heart. " — Collingwood's Correspondence, 



1808.] Tomb and Bridal. 127 

Wandering of the Duchess of Orleans. 

reference to this movement, in behalf of Prince 
Leopold, through, the agency of the Duke of 
Orleans: 

" Several of the nobles who attend his royal 
highness are French, and there is no govern- 
ment here which can give protection to any 
Frenchman from the populace." 

England did not favor the idea of placing a 
Sicilian prince on the throne of Spain by the 
aid of a French duke. Thus the enterprise 
was finally abandoned. In the then disturbed 
state of Europe, nearly all the countries being 
more or less ravaged by the sweep of hostile 
armies, and there being no regular postal com- 
munication, and no free passage from one coun- 
try to another, it was often impossible for the 
Duke of Orleans to learn, for long periods of 
time, what was the fate of his mother and his 
sister, or even where they were. Upon the 
decree by the Directory of the expulsion of 
all the Bourbons from France, the Duchess of 
Orleans had retired to Figueras, in Spain. 

In June, 1808, one of the tempests of war 
reached that town, and in a terrific bombard- 
ment of a few hours it was laid in ashes. The 
Duchess of Orleans fled from her home at mid- 
Kiight, only a few hours before it was blown 



128 Louis Philippe. [1808. 



The brother and sister united. 



into the air bj a shower of bombs. Escaping 
from these scenes of ruin and woe, the widow- 
ed, almost childless, and friendless duchess, but 
still maintaining wonderful fortitude of char- 
acter, found refuge, after many painful adven- 
tures, in PortMahon, on the island of Minorca. 

The Duke of Orleans, thwarted in his plans, 
regarded with jealousy by the British Cabinet, 
and assailed with bitterest contumely in both 
aristocratic and democratic journals, applied to 
the English Secretary of State for permission 
to pass to Port Mahon to join his mother. But 
the British authorities would not consent to his 
landing anywhere on the Spanish territories. 
They, however, at length yielded to his impor- 
tunities so far as to allow him to embark in an 
English frigate for the island of Malta, the cap- 
tain of the frigate receiving strict injunctions 
not even to approach the Spanish, coast. 

Proceeding to Portsmouth, where he was to 
embark, he there, to his inexpressible joy, met 
his only and dearly beloved sister, from whom 
he had so long been separated. This virtuous, 
amiable, but unhappy princess, had long been 
striving to join her wandering brothers and 
share their fate. Thus far she had been baf- 
fled in every endeavor, and two of them had 



1809.] Tomb and Bridal. 129 

• Their arrival at Malta. 

sadly gone down into the grave, unsustained 
by those consolations which a sister's love and 
attentions might have afforded them. The 
princess had finally succeeded in tracing her 
only surviving brother from Sicily to Gibral- 
tar, and from Gibraltar to England. She had 
thus providentially met him just as he was em- 
barkino- for Malta. 

The brother and sister sailed together, and 
landed at the port of Valetta, in Malta, in Feb- 
ruary, 1809. Thence the duke dispatched a 
private messenger, the Chevalier de Brovul, to 
seek an interview with his mother, to explain 
to her the impossibility of their going to Mi- 
norca, and to entreat her to join them, if possi- 
ble, in Malta. 

" The duke's agent," writes the Englisb his- 
torian, Kev. G. N. Wright, " was faithful, intel- 
ligent, and active. But the impediments which 
were placed in his path rendered his progress 
in negotiation slow, and at length completely 
obstructed them." 

The Spaniards did not love the English, and 
the Enojlish made no efforts to dis2:uise their 
contempt of the Spaniards. There was no cor- 
diai co-operation of action. There was a strong 
party -in. Spain in favor of the i-egeneration of 

I 



130 Louis Philippe. [1809. 

Anarchy in Spain. • 

their country by the enlightened and liberal 
views which Joseph Bonaparte was introduc- 
ing. There was another powerful party op- 
posed to France, and equally opposed to Brit- 
ish domination. 

" The greatest anarchy," says Mr. Wright, 
"prevailed in every part of the Peninsula. 
The Spaniards were divided in their allegiance, 
and a Bonapartist party was formed in the heart 
of the country. The national resources were 
exhausted; and their co-operation with the 
English wanted that cordiality to which her 
noble efforts had entitled her, and which Span- 
ish policy ought to have extended to them. 

"Brovul, who had been dispatched to con- 
vey a mere affectionate expression of regard 
and love from her children to the venerable 
duchess, became, on his route, transformed into 
a political envoy. It was now distinctly and 
emphatically proposed, by several of the most 
distinguished men of the Spanish national par- 
ty, that the Duke of Orleans should be invited 
over into Spain, and that he should place him- 
self at their head, and lead an army of inva- 
sion into France. 

"A secret agent was sent into the southern 
provincesof France to ascertain the public sen- 



1809.] Tomb and Bridal. 181 

Unfriendly conduct of the Queen of Sicily. 



timent there. He reported that the people 
looked to the Duke of Orleans as the only 
member of the Bourbon family who enjoyed a 
military reputation ; as a prince whose sword 
had been sharpened bj'' the wrongs of his race, 
and that they declared, in the most enthusias- 
tic manner, their readiness to follow him to 
victory or death." 

Misled by this report, which proved to be a 
gross exaggeration, the Spanish Junta appoint- 
ed the Duke of Orleans to a command destined 
to act on the frontiers of Catalonia. But the 
local juntas were opposed to the movement 
There was no harmony — no combined action. 
All was confusion, and the duke made no at- 
tempt to enter upon his command.* The Si- 
cilian queen, Maria Caroline, irritated by the 
utter failure of the movement in behalf of her 
son, and disappointed that the Duke of Orleans 

* " Besides, possibly England did not think, and the ex- 
iled Bourbons of the elder branch would naturally have con- 
curred in the sentiment, that it would be prudent or poli- 
tic to send a gallant prince of Orleans to lead the Spaniards 
to victory, a prince who was the great-grandson of that Phi- 
lippe of Orleans who, by the lustre of his talents and the 
many attractions of his character, became the idol of the 
army and the nation." — Life and Times of Louis Philippe, 
by Rev. G. N. Wright. 



132 Louis Philippe. [1809. 

Eulogy upon the Duchess of Orleans. 

had so little influence over the British Cab- 
inet, became quite alienated from her prospect- 
ive son-in-law, wrote very cold letters to him, 
and the failure of the marriage treaty was 
openly spoken of in the court and in the jour- 
nals. 

The. duke— whose attachment to the Priu' 
cess Amelia was very strong — alarmed by these 
procedures, repaired immediately to Palermo 
to confront his enem.ies and to plead his cause. 
He was successful. The confidence and love 
of Amelia had never abated. The presence of 
the illustrious young man — so handsome, so in- 
telligent, so spotless in character, so fascinating 
and princely in his bearing — soon dispelled all 
clouds. The queen could no longer withhold 
her consent to the nuptials. With happiness 
tkus beginning to dawn upon him, the duke 
wrote as follows to his mother: 

" Their majesties urged some objections to 
the marriage of a princess of their house to a 
wandering exile like myself. Upon which I 
stated that I should apply to you and induce 
you to advocate my cause, and become security 
for my principles and fidelity to those to whom 
I promised allegiance. 'Ah,' replied the queen, 
'if you can obtain the advocacy of that angel, 



1809.] Tomb and Bridal. 133 



The weddinsr. 



it will, indeed, be impossible to refuse you any 
thing.' I should like, dear mother, to give 
you a faithful portrait of the princess, who was 
destined to be my bride, even before her birth. 
But I feel that I could make but an indiffer- 
ent and very unworthy sketch. She possesses 
many amiable and elevated qualities, which I 
shall take the liberty of summing up in one 
brief sentence, by assuring you that she seems 
to be a perfect model of my mother." 

Soon after this the duchess embarked in an 
English frigate for Palermo, and reached there 
in safety on the 15th of October, 1809. Thus, 
after long, long years of separation, the surviv- 
ors of the exiled family, though still in exile, 
were reunited. On the 25th of November the 
nuptial benediction was pronounced in the 
beautiful old Norman chapel of the Palazzo 
Eeale. 

" The most remarkable and curious fact con- 
nected with the origin and structure of the Ca- 
pella Eeale is, that to the completion of this 
most perfect illustration of the art of ecclesiastic 
building three nations have contributed — the 
Greeks, Saracens, and Normans. And by this 
fortuitous association the chaste style of the 
ancients, the cold m.anner of the Northerns, 



134 Louis Philippe. [1809. 



Character of the bride. 



and the luxurious fashion of the East are all 
here blended in perfect harmony."* 

General Cass, the American minister to 
France, who, thirty years after these events, 
wrote from the palace of the Tuileries, where 
Louis Philippe and his amiable queen were 
then enthroned, says : 

" The queen was the daughter of that King 
of Kaples who was driven from his Continental 
dominions by the French, and took refuge, 
with his family and court, in Sicily. Here the 
king, Louis Philippe, then poor and in exile, 
married her; and the match is understood to 
have been one of affection on both sides. The 
thirtieth anniversary of their union has just 
expired, and they are at the summit of human 
power, with a most interesting family of seven 
children, and, as is known to every body, with 
the warmest attachment to each other. In the 
bitterness of French political discussions no 
whisper of calumny has ever been heard against 
the queen. And one who could pass through 
this ordeal has nothing more to dread from 
human investigation. A kinder, more anxious 
mother is nowhere to be found. She is a sin- 
cere believer in the Christian religion, and de* 

* Wright's Shores and Islands of tlie Mediterranean. 



1809.] Tomb and Bkidal. 135 

Her benevolence. 

vout in the performance of its duties. Her 
charity is known throughout the country, and 
appeals for the distressed are never made to her 
in vain. In the performance of her regal du- 
ties, while her bearing is what the nature of 
her position requires, there is a kind of affa- 
bility which, seems continually seeking to put 
all around her as much at their ease as possi* 
ble."* 

* France in 1840. By an American — [General Cass], 



136 Louis Philippe. [181-i. 



The Sicilian Court. 



Chapter Y. 
The Restoration. 

THE court of Ferdinand IV., one of the 
most worthless and corrupt of the old feu- 
dal .dynasties, was maintained in Sicily by the 
army, the navy, and the purse of England. 
His Sicilian majesty received from the British 
Government an annual subsidy of four hun- 
dred thousand pounds sterling ($2,000,000), to 
support the dignity of his throne, and to pay 
for the troops which Sicily furnished England 
for her interminable warfare asrainst the French 
Empire. The Duke of Orleans severely con- 
demned the errors and follies continually de- 
veloped by the reigning dynasty, and yet he 
found himself utterly powerless to remedy 
them. The queen was the ruling power at the 
court, and her prejudiced and impassioned na- 
ture was impervious to any appeals of reason. 
She knew yery well that England did not loan 
her protection and lavish her gold upon the 
Sicilian Court from any love for that court, but 



I8U.] The Eestoration. 137 



Retirement of the duke. 



simply from dread and hatred of the repub- 
lican principles advocated by Napoleon. She, 
therefore, often treated the English with the ut- 
most disdain. And yet, sustained by twenty 
thousand British troops upon the island, she 
trampled upon all popular rights, consigning, 
by arbitrary arrests, to the dungeon or to exile 
all who opposed her sway. 

"Against these violations of law, infringe- 
ments of liberty, and manifestations, of absolu- 
tism, the Sicilians rose wnth becoming firmness. 
The Duke of Orleans had long foreseen the 
approaching hurricane, the gathering wrath 
of an injured people; but finding his remon- 
strances vain, his principles of government al- 
most directly contrary to those of his august 
mother-in-law, he retired from a court where 
there was no roo^i for a virtuous counsellor, 
and, with his wife and her infant prince, lived 
in retirement a few miles from Palermo."* 

The duke was living tranquilly, and perhaps 
not unhappily, in this retirement, abstaining 
from all participation in the intrigues of the 
Sicilian Court, when, on the morning of the 
23d of April, 1814, an English frigate, with 
every banner floating triumphantly in the 
* Life and Times of Louis Philippe. 



138 Louis Philippe. [1814. 

The Restoration. 

breeze, entered tlie harbor of Palermo. It 
brought the astounding intelligence of the fall 
of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bour- 
bons. The exciting tidings soon reached the 
ears of the duke. He hurried to Palermo, and 
drove directly to the palace of the English am- 
bassador, where he was greeted with the words: 

" I congratulate you upon the downfall of 
Napoleon, and on the restoration of the illus- 
trious race, of which you yourself are a mem- 
ber, to the throne of their fathers." 

For a moment the duke was speechless with 
astonishment, and then declared the story to 
be quite incredible. He however was soon con- 
vinced that it was even so, by reading a copy 
of the Moniteur^ which gave a detailed account 
of the whole event. All the shipping and 
all the forts of Palermo werg^ now resounding 
with the thunders of exultation. The Duke 
of Orleans had fought under the tri-color flag. 
Mingled emotions agitated him. He saw that 
national banner which had waved so proudly 
over many a field of victory now trampled in 
the dust beneath the feet of foreign squadrons, 
and their allied armies exultingly encamped 
within the parks of his native city. The res- 
toration of the Bourbons had been accomplished 



1814.] The Kestoration. 139 



The return to Paris. 



at the expense of the humiliation of his coun- 
try. 

The next day, the commander of the ship 
which had brought the intelligence called at 
the residence of the Duke of Orleans, and said 
to him, 

"I am directed by Admiral Lord William 
Bentinck, who is now at Genoa, to wait upon 
your royal highness, and ascertain if you wish 
to return to France. If so, my vessel and my 
personal services are at your command. If 
you prefer to remain at Naples, I hope you 
may enjoy that lasting happiness to which, by 
your eventful and virtuous life, you are so emi- 
nently entitled."* 

The duke pondered the fact that he was in- 
vited to return to Paris, not by an envoy from 
the restored king, but by an officer in the Brit- 
ish navy. Still the prince resolved immediate- 
ly to repair to Paris. Taking an affectionate 
farewell of his wife and their infant son, he 
embarked on board the English frigate, accom- 
panied by a single servant, and on the eight- 
eenth of May, 1814, entered his native city, 

* During much of his exile, Louis XVIII. had occupied 
the chateau of Hartwell, in the county of Buckingham, ahout 
fifty miles from London, 



140 Louis Philippe. [1814. 

Arrival iu Paris, 

fi-om which he had so Ions: been an exile. 
Louis XVIII. was already there, having re- 
turned to Paris in the rear of the bayonets and 
the batteries of foreign troops. It was his maj- 
esty's expressed wash that the Palais Koyal, 
the hereditary mansion of the Orleans family, 
should be repaired and restored to its former 
owners. During the republican and imperial 
rule, its numerous and spacious apartments 
had been appropriated to private residences. 
The duke, upon arriving in Paris, availed him- 
self of temporary accommodations in furnished 
apartments in the Rue Grange Bateliere. One 
of his first steps was to repair incognito to the 
home of his fathers. The Swiss servants who 
Guarded the palace still wore the imperial liv- 
ery. With some reluctance they yielded to 
the importunities of the stranger, and allowed 
him to penetrate the interior apartments. 

*'As he approached tlie grand staircase, the 
recollections of his boyhood, the lustre of his 
ancient race, the agonies of mind he had en- 
dured since he last beheld that spot, and grati- 
tude to that Providence which had spared him 
amidst such universal ruin, completely over- 
whelmed him, and, falling prostrate on the tes- 
selated pavement, he imprinted a thousand 



1814.] The Restoration. 141 



Reception by the Bourbons. 



kisses on the cold white marble, while tears 
gushing from his eyes indicated, while they re- 
lieved, the emotions with which he contended."* 

The next day the duke was presented to his 
majesty, Louis XVIIL, at the Tuileries. As 
he approached the royal presence, the king ad- 
vanced towards him, and said, 

" Your highness was a lieutenant-general in 
the service of your country twenty-five years 
ago, and you are still the same." 

The assumption adopted by Louis XVIIL 
that there had been no interruption of the 
Bourbon reign, and the attempt to blot from 
history the twenty-five most eventful years in 
the annals of France, deservedly excited both 
contempt and ridicule. An American writer 
of distinction says: 

" The unconquerable prejudices of the Bour- 
bons, and their studied ignorance of the feel- 
ings of the country they were called to govern 
after an exile of twenty -five years, were the 
prognostics as well as the cause of their ulti- 
mate fall. 

"Their imperial predecessor had indeed left 
them a difficult task. His career was so bril- 
liant that it may well have dazzled his coun- 

* Life and Times of Louis Philippe. 



142 Louis Philippe. [1814. 

Testimony of an American. 



trjmen, and left them unfitted for a milder 
domination. He was, indeed, a wonderful 
man ; and I have been more powerfully im- 
pressed than ever, since my arrival in France, 
with the prodigious force of his character, 
and with the gigantic scope as well as the vast 
variety of his plans. 

" I am satisfied that circumstances have not 
been favorable to a just appreciation of the 
whole character of Napoleon in the United 
States. While he was at the head of the na- 
tion, we surveyed him very much through the 
English journals, and we imbibed all the prej- 
udices which a long and bitter war had engen- 
dered against him in England. To be sure, his 
military renown could not be called in ques- 
tion ; but of his civic talents a comparatively 
humble estimate was formed. I have since 
learned to correct this appreciation."* 

It was the undisguised eifort of Louis XYIIL, 
now restored by foreign armies to the throne, 
to annihilate the memory of all that France 
had achieved at home and abroad, under the 
administration of Napoleon. The tri-color was 
exchanged for the white banner of the Bour- 
bons, and the eagles were replaced by the GaL 

* General Cass. 



1814.] The Eestoration. 143 

Pride of the Bourbons. 

lie cock. All the insignia of imperialism were 
carefully obliterated. The evidence seems quite 
conclusive that the king, notwithstanding his 
apparent reconciliation with the Duke of Or- 
leans, still regarded him with much suspicion, 
and would have been very willing that he 
should have continued in exile. Indeed, the 
king seemed disposed to revive old family feuds, 
that he might keep the duke estranged, as far 
as possible, from the sympathies of the Legiti- 
mist party. 

The Duchess of Orleans was of royal blood, 
the daughter of a king. But the father of the 
Duke of Orleans had worn only a ducal, not 
a royal crown. The king, consequently, gave 
orders that, whenever the Duke of Orleans and 
his suite should appear at court, both of the 
folding-doors of the grand entrance should be 
thrown open for the duchess, while but one 
should be opened for her husband. 

In July the duke embarked in a French 
ship of the line, with Baron Athalin and 
Count Sainte Aldegonde as his aids, to trans- 
fer his family from Palermo to Paris. Early 
in August they were luxuriously domiciled in 
his maonificent ancestral home. Madame de 
Genlis, now venerable in years, and having 



144 Louis Philippe. [1815. 



Madame de Genlis. 



ever retained the reverence and affection of 
her distinguished pupils, hastened to join the 
ducal family in the saloons of the Palais Eoyal. 

" This resolution," she writes, " procured 
me the inexpressible happiness of once more 
seeing my pupils, Mademoiselle and the Duke 
of Orleans. In our first interview they both 
displayed to me all the affection, all the emo- 
tion and delight which I myself experienced. 
Alas ! how deeply I felt, at this meeting, the 
absence of the beloved pupils, the Duke of 
Montpensier and his brother Count Beaujolais, 
who both died in exile." 

The winter passed rapidly away, and on the 
5th of March, 1815, to the dismay of the Bour- 
bons, and of all the crowned heads of Europe, 
the tidings reached Paris that Napoleon had 
left Elba, landed at Cannes, and, accompanied 
by ever-increasing thousands of enthusiastic 
supporters, was on the triumphal march to- 
wards the metropolis. The most terrible proc- 
lamations were hurled against him by Louis 
XVIIL, but all in vain. All opposition 
melted before the popular emperor. The 
path from Cannes to Paris was over six hun- 
dred miles in length, through the heart of 
France. But the Bourbons, with the armies 



1815.] The Kestoration. 146 



Triumphal advance of Napoleon. 



of France nominally at their disposal, and the 
sympathies of all the feudal dynasties in Eu- 
rope enlisted in their behalf, could summon no 
force sufficient to arrest the progress of that one 
unarmed man. The Duke of Orleans has- 
tened to the presence of his majesty, and, ad- 
dressing the trembling monarch, said : 

" Sire, as for me, I am prepared to share 
both your bad and good fortune. Although 
one of your royal race, I am your subject, 
servant, and soldier. Do with me as your 
majesty pleases, for the honor and peace of 
our country." 

The king sent him to Lyons, to co-operate 
with the king's brother, the Count d'Artois, 
subsequently Charles X., in the endeavor to 
retard, hy every means in their power, the 
advance of the ex-emperor upon Paris. A 
council of war was immediately held, the 
Count d'Artois presiding. Marshal Macdonald 
proved to the satisfaction of all present that 
it would be impossible to prevent the occu- 
pation of Lyons by Napoleon. Thence bis 
march to Paris would be unimpeded. 

All was consternation in the Bourbon 
Court. Louis Philippe broke up his estab- 
lishment, and dispatched his wife and family, 

K 



146 Louis Philippe. [1815. 

Flight of Louis XVIII. 

by the most expeditious route, to England. 
The armies of France were concentrated as 
rapidly as possible on the borders of the 
Khine, where the allied troops could hurry to 
their support. The Duke of Orleans was in- 
vested with the command of this army of the 
north. Louis XYIIL, surrounded by a small 
body of Guards, entered his carriage and fled 
precipitately across the Ehine, to place him- 
self again under the protection of the allied 
sovereigns who were convened in Congress at 
Vienna. 

The accompanying cut will give the reader 
a vivid idea of the departure. The king was 
enormously fat. His figure, with long body 
and very short legs, was peculiar almost to de- 
formity. He entered his carriage for his flight, 
with apparently none to regret his departure, 
at one o'clock, on the morning of the 19th of 
March. The evening of the next day, the 20th, 
the emperor arrived, and, surrounded by the 
acclamations of thousands, was borne, in a 
scene of indescribable enthusiasm, on the 
shoulders of the people into the vacant palace. 

"The moment that the carriage stopped," 
says Alison, " he was seized by those next the 
door, borne aloft in their arms, amidst deafen- 



1815.] The Restoration. 149 

Signal triumph of Napoleon. 

ing cheers, through a dense and brilliant crowd 
of epaulets, hurried literally above the heads 
of the throng up the great staircase into the 
saloon of reception, where a splendid array of 
the ladies of the imperial court, adorned with 
a profusion of violet bouquets, half concealed 
in the richest laces,, received him with trans- 
ports, and imprinted fervent kisses on his 
cheeks, his hands, and even his dress. Never 
was such a scene witnessed in history." 

This triumphal journey of Napoleon for 
nearly seven hundred miles, through the heart 
of France, alone and unaided invading a king- 
dom of thirty millions of inhabitants, vanquish- 
ing all the armies of the Bourbons, and regain- 
ing the throne without drawing a sword or 
firing a musket, presents one of the most re- 
markable instances on record of the power of 
one mighty mind over human hearts. Bound- 
less enthusiasm, from citizens and soldiers, 
greeted him every step of his way. A more 
emphatic vote in favor of the Empire could 
not have been given. A more legitimate title 
to the throne no monarch ever enjoyed. And 
yet the Allies, in renewing the war against 
him, had the unblushing effrontery to proclaim 
that they were contending for the liberties of the 



150 Louis Philippe. [1815. 

Ketireraent of the Bourbons. 

people ji gainst the tyraway of an usur2:>eT! lu 
view of such achievements of Napoleon, we 
do not wonder that Lamartine, his unrelenting 
political foe, should say that, as a man, "Napo- 
leon was the greatest of the creations of God." 
"The emperor, notwithstanding the Bour- 
bons had set a price upon his head, issued 
special orders that they should not be molest- 
ed; that they should be permitted to retire 
without injury or insult. He could, with per- 
fect ease, have taken them prisoners, and then, 
in possession of their persons, could have com- 
pelled the Allies to reasonable terms. But 
his extraordinary magnanimity prevented him 
from pursuing such a course. Louis XVIII. , 
accompanied by a funeral procession of car- 
riages containing members of his family, his 
ministers, and returned emigrants, trembling 
md in dismay, retired to Lille, on the northern 
frontiers of France. The inhabitants of the 
departments through which he passed gazed 
silently and compassionately upon the infirm 
old man, and uttered no word of reproach ; 
but as soon as the cortege had passed, the tri- 
colored banner was run up on steeple and tur- 
ret, and the air resounded with shouts of Viue 
TEmpereurr^ 

* Abbott's Life of Napoleon, vol. ii., p. 405. 



1815.] The Eestokation. 158 

Eflforts of the Duke of Orleans. 



Immediately Napoleon dispatched by tele- 
graph the following order throughout France : 
" The emperor having entered Paris at the 
head of the very troops that were sent to op- 
pose him, the civil and military authorities are 
hereby cautioned against obeying any other 
than the imperial orders, and are enjoined, un- 
der the last penalty of military law, to hoist 
the tri-colored flag upon the receipt of this in- 
telligence." 

Eegardless of this order, the Duke of Or- 
leans, in the north of France, made very great 
efforts, by visiting all the posts, to inspire the 
soldiers to fidelity to the Bourbons, and to 
rouse them to oppose the emperor. "Find- 
ing," says a writer, who was in sympathy with 
his efforts, " his great exertions as fruitless as 
the assaults of the winds upon the mountain's 
rocky ridge, he at length abandoned the proj- 
ect. The conduct of Louis XVIII. was but 
little calculated to inspire his subjects with re- 
spect, or to restore their fading fidelity. Hav- 
ing reached Lille on the 22d, on the next day 
he fled, with indecent haste, towards the front- 
ier, not remaining long enough, even if his fac- 
ulties had been sufficiently collected to do so, 
to give final or further instructions to the lieu- 



154 Louis Philippe. [1815. 

Dejection of the Duke of Orleans. 

tenant-general. Terror of Napoleon occupied 
his every thought ; and the wings of the wind 
were unequal to keep pace with the eagerness 
of his mind to escape from the iron grasp of 
the mortal enemy of his race. Louis Philippe 
had lent the protection and encouragement of 
companionship to his majesty to a distance of 
five miles from Lille ; yet the timid monarch 
never delivered to him any instructions or 
command as to the operations of the army, nor 
confessed his future project."^ 

The Duke of Orleans was annoyed and ir- 
ritated by the pusillanimity displayed by the 
king, and by the mortifying reserve with 
which he himself was treated. He called upon 
the commandants of the different towns, and 
informed them that the king had left France 
without giving him any authority to act. He 
then issued a public proclamation, in which he 
resigned his entire command to Marshal Mor- 
tier. In this he said: 

"I go to bury myself in retirement and ob- 
livion. The king being no longer in France, 
I ca'U not transmit you any further orders in 
his name; and it only remains for me to re- 
lease you from the observation of all the or- 

* Life and Times of Louis Philippe, by Rev. G. N. Wright. 



1815.] The Eestoration. 155 

Calumnies of the journals. 

ders which I have already transmitted to 3^00, 
and to recommend you to do every thing that 
your excellent judgment and pure patriotism 
will suggest to you. Farewell, my dear mar- 
shal. My heart is oppressed in writing this 
word." 

On the 22d Louis Philippe broke up his es- 
tablishment at head-quarters, and set out to re- 
join his family in England. He had but lit- 
tle hope then of ever again revisiting France. 
His sufferings must indeed have been agoniz- 
ing in finding all his newlj^-born hopes vanish- 
ing, and in again entering upon the weary life 
of an exile. Arriving in England, he directed 
his steps to the beautiful and sequestered re- 
treat of Twickenham. It was a hallowed spot, 
endeared to him by the memory of days of 
tranquillity and of a pensive joy, and by scenes 
of heart-rending anguish, as he had there seen 
his two beloved brothers sinking sadly into 
the grave. 

"The triumph of legitimacy," says Mr. 
Wright, " which dethroned Napoleon," in- 
spired its followers in foreign lands with new 
zeal, fresh devotion, and increased prospects 
of ascendency. In England the most servile 
of that faction had the malignity to invent and 



156 Louis Philippe. [1815. 



Return of the Bourbons to Paris. 



publish, bj means of tbe dishonest portion of 
the daily press, the grossest and most painful 
calumnies against the Duke of Orleans. The 
Bourbon faction, expert at calumny and in- 
trigue, employed every means their art sup- 
plied to accomplish their darling object, which 
was the still further separation of the elder 
from the younger branch of the royal family. 
It was now that the persecutors of the Duke 
of Orleans hit upon the scheme of defaming 
him by forgery. They forged various protes- 
tations and confessions of faith, which they 
subscribed with the name of Louis Philippe, 
and procured their publication in English 
journals ; " the tendency of which was to place 
him in a false position with respect to the eld- 
er branch of his family." 

The hundred days of Napoleon's second 
reign passed rapidly away. The defeat at 
Waterloo restored Louis XVIIL to the throne, 
with a better prospect of its permanent pos- 
session. Napoleon, in the long agony at St. 
Helena, expiated the crime of raising the ban- 
ner oi Equal Bights for All Men^ in opposition 
to the exclusive privileges of kings and nobles. 
Louis XVIIL, escorted by nearly a million of 
foreign troops, returned to the Tuileries. All 



1815.] The Eestoration. 157 



The duke's possessions restored. 



the members of the royal family followed from 
their wide dispersion. Louis Philippe joined 
the crowd, and again presented himself in the 
royal saloons. The king suspected him, and 
in the presence of a full court received him 
with marked coldness. Conscious of his own 
unpopularity, and of the general impression 
that the Duke of Orleans was tinctured with 
liberal sentiments, the king was ever appre- 
hensive that a faction might arise in favor of 
placing the Duke of Orleans upon the throne. 

The shrewd, intriguing Fouche, duke of 
Otranto, in a letter written to the Duke of 
Wellington at this time, says : 

*' The personal qualities of the Duke of Or- 
leans, the remembrance of Jemappes, the pos- 
sibility of making a treaty which would con- 
ciliate all interests, the name of Bourbon, 
which might serve outside, but not be pro- 
nounced within— all these motives, and many 
others that might be mentioned, present in this 
last choice a perspective of repose and secu- 
rity even to those who could not perceive in 
them an omen of happiness." 

Though the king declined the assistance of 
the Duke of Orleans in reorganizing his gov- 
ernment, he restored to him his vast ancestral 



158 Louis Philippe. [1815. 

The duke returns to the Palais Royal. 

possessions. Kecrossing the Channel, the duke 
conducted his family from Twickenham back 
to the sumptuous saloons of the Palais Eoyal. 
A royal ordinance commanded all the princes 
of the blood royal to take seats in the Chamber 
of Peers. Under this decree the Duke of Or- 
leans became a member of that august and in- 
fluential body. 

And now commenced the reign of what was 
called the Terreur Blanche^ or White Terror, 
consisting of a series of proscriptions and 
bloody executions, under the white flag of the 
Bourbons, which shocked the spirit of human- 
ity. Unrelenting revenge was dominant. Mar- 
shal Ney, General Labedoyere, and many oth- 
ers of the noblest men in France, were ere 
long put to death or driven into exile. The 
friends of Louis XYIIL in the Chamber of 
Peers urged on these merciless executions. A 
resolution was introduced into that body and 
strongly supported, calling for the exempla- 
ry chastisement of all political delinquents. 
There were a few who indignantly repudiated 
this revengeful spirit. 

The Duke of Orleans ascended the tribune. 
His person was but little known by the ma- 
jority of those present. As the son of Ega- 



1815.] The Eestokation. 159 

Unmauity of the Duke of Orleans. 

lite, and as one suspected of liberal principles, 
lie was hated by the returned emigrants of 
the old Bourbon party. As he took his stand 
in the tribune there was breathless silence 
throughout the whole assembly. Every eye 
was fixed upon him. His majestic figure, his 
fine countenance, intellectual, thoughtful, upon 
which there remained the traces of many suf- 
ferings, his calm, dignified, self-possessed bear- 
ing, and his exalted rank as a prince of the 
royal line, created profound sentiments of re- 
spect. For a moment he looked upon the as- 
sembly in silence. Then in slow, solemn, de- 
cisive terms he remonstrated against the ma- 
levolent spirit which was being developed. 

" I propose," said he, "the total suppression 
of the obnoxious clause. Let us leave to his 
majesty's parental care the charge of maintain- 
ing public order. Let us not urge a revenge- 
ful spirit which malevolence may convert into 
a weapon for disturbing the peace of the na- 
tion. Our position as judges of appeal over 
those very individuals to whom you recom- 
mend the exercise of severity, rather than of 
mercy, should impose absolute silence upon 
us in respect to them." 

These just and noble sentiments the mnjori- 



160 Louis Philippe. [1815. 

The duke persecuted by the court. 

ty applauded, and the vote was carried in be- 
half of humanity. But the king and his cote- 
rie were very angry, and assailed the duke in 
the most violent terms of condemnation. The 
king, in a petty spirit of revenge, issued a de- 
cree, recalling the ordinance that all the princes 
of the blood royal were to sit in the Chamber 
of Peers, and declaring that none in future 
were to appear there but by special authority 
of the king, delivered at each particular sitting. 

This was intended as a deliberate insult to 
the Duke of Orleans, to exclude him from the 
Chamber of Peers, and to degrade him in the 
eyes of the partisans of the king. This pitiful 
spirit of persecution greatly increased the gen- 
eral popularity of the duke, which led to a re- 
doubled clamor of calumny on the part of his 
opponents. He was accused of seeking to ral- 
ly around him the malcontents, of courting the 
favor of the populace, and of trying to organ- 
ize an Orleans faction in his interests. 

The clamor was so loud and so annoying, 
and the duke found himself so entirely ex- 
cluded from the sympathies of the court and 
of the dominant nobles, that, to escape from 
the storm, he imposed upon himself voluntary 
exile, and again, forsaking France, sought ref 




MAESUAL KEY. 



1815.] The Restoration. 168 



Execution of Marshal Ney. 



uge with his family in his English retreat at 
Twickenham. 

The annoying report was circulated, that the 
duke was banished by an indignant decree of 
the king, which, out of regard to the duke's 
feelings, he had not made public. Louis Phi- 
lippe was fully conscious of the great unpopu- 
larity of the elder branch of the Bourbons, and 
of the feeble tenure by which they held their 
power, sustained against the popular will by 
the bayonets of the Allies. 

The duke had hardly arrived at Twicken- 
ham ere he received an affecting letter from 
the wife of Marshal Ney, entreating him to in- 
tercede with the Prince Regent of England 
for the life of her noble husband, then in pris- 
on awaiting the almost certain doom of death. 
The duke did plead for him in the most ear- 
nest terms; but his efforts were unavailing. 
Thus one of the most illustrious of the sons of 
France, " the bravest of the brave," was led out 
into the garden of the Luxembourg and shot 
down like a dog. Marshal Ney had fought a 
hundred battles for France, not one against her. 
His crime was, that, having accepted command 
under the Bourbons, he had been guilty of 
treason in deserting his standard, and had wel- 



164 Louis Philippe. [1817. 

Again an exile. 

corned back the emperor, whom he had served 
in so many battles, and whom he so dearly 
loved. By the capitulation of Paris it was 
expressly declared that "no person should be 
molested for his political opinions or conduct 
during the Hundred Days ;" but the Allies paid 
no regard to their plighted faith.* 

One important object of Louis Philippe, in 
withdrawing from France, was to avoid the 
embarrassment of being brought forward in 
opposition to the king, and in being made the 
head of the Liberal party. This refusal to iden- 
tify himself with any democratic movement 
rendered him very popular with the English 
Court, a popularity increased by England's ad- 
oration of exalted rank and princely fortune. 
The duke was received, in palace and castle, 
with splendid hospitality, which he frequently 
eclipsed in the brilliant entertainments which 
he in return gave at Twickenham. 

* "England entailed a lasting disgrace upon her name by 
not prohibiting the execution of a vengeance so long delayed ; 
by not claiming as her victims those brave men whom the 
glory of her arms had unfortunately placed at the mercy of 
the Bourbons, and by allowing the French king to put those 
fine fellows to death on the scaffold, whose military prowess 
was honorable to France." — Life and Times of Loitis Phi* 
lippe. 



1817.] The Restoration. 165 

Testimony of Madame de Genlis. 

The duke now devoted himself, in his vol- 
untary exile, to the administration of his sump- 
tuous household, and to the rearing of his rap- 
idly increasing family, abstaining entirely from 
all participation in the politics and intrigues 
of Paris. His mansion v^as ever thronged with 
distinguished guests, and multitudes, ruined by 
the storms which had swept over their several 
lands, frequented his saloons, seeking pecunia- 
ry aid. The applicants were so numerous and 
the claims so complicated, that the duke found 
it necessary to establish a bureau of charity 
to examine these claims and to disburse his 
bounty. 

In 1817 the duke returned to France, and 
divided his time between the Palais Royal 
and his magnificent rural retreat at Neuilly. 
Wealth, rank, and hospitality will always draw 
a crowd. The duke lived, as it were, in a 
small but brilliant court of his own. He sel- 
dom appeared in the court of Louis XVIIL, 
and took no part in public affairs. Much of 
his time was devoted to superintending the ed- 
ucation of his very interesting group of chil- 
dren. Madame de Grenlis gives the following 
description of this ducal family : 

"I continued to pay my respects to Made* 



166 Louis Philippe. [1817. 

The princes in the national lyceums. 

moiselle d'Orleans, who is still as kind and 
afifectionate towards me as ever. I saw the 
young Prince de Joinville, who was only two 
years old, but who spoke as distinctly as a 
child of six or seven. He was also as polite 
as he was handsome and intelligent In fact, 
the whole family of the Duke of Orleans is 
truly the most interesting I ever knew. The 
members of it are charming by their personal 
attractions, their natural qualities and educa- 
tion, and by the reciprocal attachment of par- 
ents and children."^ 

But again the duke incurred the displeasure 
of the court. Anxious that his sons should 
derive the benefit of free intercourse with the 
world, he decided to place them, for the com- 
pletion of their education, in the national ly- 
ceums. Here they were on a level with other 
boys, and could only secure distinction by mer- 
it. The court, however, and the old nobility, 
deemed it gross contamination for princes of 
the blood royal to associate with the children 
of citizens, and they regarded the measure as 
merely another attempt on the part of the 
Duke of Orleans to secure the favor of the 
populace. Even the king himself remonstra- 
* Autobiography of Madame de Genlis. 



1817.] The Restoration. 167 

Democratic tendencies of the duke. 

ted with the duke upon the impropriety of his 
course. But the duke reminded his majesty 
that their illustrious ancestor, Henry IV., had 
been thus brought up, having been sent by 
his mother to the public school in Berne. 

One of the Paris journals, commenting upon 
this republican measure of the duke, wrote: 
"Already has the Duke of Chartres, the eldest 
son of the Duke of Orleans, entered a college 
in Paris ; a natural thing, it may be said, pro- 
vided he is only old enough to comprehend 
the course of study. Princes have not hither- 
to been seen in public colleges since princes 
and colleges were in existence ; and this noble 
youth is the first who has been educated in 
this manner. 

" What would that great king Louis the Su- 
perb say — he who could not tolerate the idea 
even of his illegitimate children being con- 
founded with the nobility of the kingdom, such 
was his sensitiveness in view of the degrada- 
tion of the blood royal — if he beheld his grand- 
nephew, without page or Jesuit, at a public 
school, mixing with the common herd of the 
human race, and disputing with them for 
prizes, sometimes conquered, sometimes con- 
queror !" 



168 Louis Philippe. [1816. 



Marriage of the Duke de Berri. 



Chapter YI. 

The Death of Louis XYIII., and 
Keign of Charles X. 

WE have alluded to the Duke de Berri, the 
second son of Count d'Artois. As he 
became the father of Count de Chambord, the 
present Legitimist claimant of the throne of 
France, his career calls for more minute men- 
tion. 

On the 28th of March, 1816, the French peo- 
ple were informed, by an announcement to both 
of the Chambers, that the young Duke de Berri 
was about to enter into a matrimonial alliance 
with Caroline Mary, eldest daughter of the heir 
to the crown of Naples. Caroline Mary was 
the niece of the Duchess of Orleans, being the 
child of her brother. The Chambers, in token 
of their satisfaction, voted the Duke de Berri a 
nuptial gift amounting to three hundred thou- 
sand dollars. The duke mianifested his gener- 
ous character, and won great popularity, by 
accepting the gift only upon condition that he 



1816.] Death of Louis XVIII. 169 

Family of the Duke de Berri. 

might be allowed to distribute the sum among 
the poor in the provinces, who were then suf- 
fering severely from famine. 

The marriage proved a happy one, until 
death sundered the tie. Caroline Mary, who 
thus became the Duchess de Berri, was of 
sylph-like grace of figure, beautiful in features, 
and by her affable manners and unaffected 
amiability won all hearts. Four years glided 
swiftly away. Two children were born, a son 
and a daughter; both died in infancy. A 
third child proved to be a daughter. As, by 
an ancient law of the realm, daughters were 
not eligible to the throne of France, there was 
great anxiety felt throughout the kingdom. 
Unless a prince were born, there would be a 
failure in the direct line of succession, and 
civil war might be the result. On the 13th of 
February, the duke and duchess attended the 
opera. The duchess was expecting soon again 
to be a mother. By the sudden opening of a 
door, she was unexpectedly struck in the side 
with violence, which caused her some alarm, 
and she expressed the wish to return home. 

The duke led her to her carriage. She took 
her seat in it, saying to him with a smile, 
"Adieu; we shall soon meet again." As the 



170 Louis Philippe. [1820. 

Assassination of the Duke de Berri. 

duke was returning to the opera, an assassin, 
by the name of Louvel, who had been lying 
in wait for him, sprang from the darkness of 
a projecting wall, and seizing the duke by the 
shoulder with one hand, with the other plunged 
a dagger to the hilt in his side. It was the 
deed of an instant, and the assassin, in the 
darkness, fled, leaving the dagger in the side 
of the victim. 

The footman was just closing the door of 
the carriage of the duchess when she heard her 
husband cry out, " I am assassinated I I am 
dead! I have the poniard! That man has 
killed me!" With a shriek, the duchess sprang 
from her carriage and clasped her husband in 
her arms, as the gushing blood followed the 
dagger which he drew from the wound. 

" I am dead !" exclaimed the duke. " Send 
for a priest. Come, dearest, let me die in your 
arms !" 

The dying man was conveyed to an adjoin- 
ing room, and medical attendance was sum- 
moned. Nothing could staunch the gushing 
blood, and life was rapidly ebbing away. The 
duke was informed that the assassin was arrest- 
ed. "Alas!" he said, "how cruel it is to die 
by the kands of a Frenchman !" Overhearing 



1820.] Death of Louis XVIII. 178 

The dying scene. 

some one say to the almost distracted duchess 
that he hoped the wound would not prove fatal, 
the duke replied, " No ; I am not deceived ; the 
poniard has entered to the hilt." His sight be- 
came dim, and he inquired, " Caroline, are you 
there?" "Yes," she answered, "and I will 
never leave you." 

His father's confessor, the Bishop of Char- 
tres, entered, and the dying man had a few 
moments of private conversation with the eccle- 
siastic. He then called for his infant daughter. 
She was brought to him, asleep, for it was near 
midnight. Placing his hand upon her head, 
he said, " Poor child ! may you be less unfor- 
tunate than the rest of your family." 

The wound ceased to bleed externally, and 
its inward flow threatened suffocation. The 
duke's physician, M. Boujou, endeavored to 
restore circulation by sucking the wound. 
"What are you doing?" exclaimed the duke. 
"For God's sake stop! Perhaps the poniard 
was poisoned." Eespiration was now very dif- 
ficult, and the hand of the duke was clammy 
with the damp of death. As a last resort, the 
surgeon, with his knife, opened and enlarged 
the wound. The duke, grasping the hand of 
the duchess, patiently bore the painful oper- 



174 Louis Philippe. [1820. 



Assembling of the royal family. 



ation, and then said, " Spare me further 
pain." 

Turning to his wife, whom he tenderly loved, 
he said, "Caroline, take care of yourself for 
the sake of our infant, which you bear in your 
bosom." 

The duke and the duchess of Orleans, beins: 
immediately summoned, were the first of the 
relatives to arrive in this chamber of death. 
They were speedily followed by the Count 
d'Artois, the father of the sufferer, and by the 
Duke d'Angouleme, his elder brother. Other 
members of the royal family soon arrived. In 
the feeble accents of approaching death, the 
duke inquired, 

" Who is the man who has killed me ? I 
wish I could see him, to inquire into his mo- 
tives. Perhaps it is some one whom I have 
unconsciously offended. Would that I might 
live long enough to ask the king to pardon 
him. Promise me, my father, promise me, my 
brother, to ask of the king the life of that 
man." 

Another touching scene, of a very delicate 
nature, which I can not refrain from recording 
occurred in this solemn hour. It was manifest 
to the duke, as well as to all of his friends, that 



1820.] Death of Louis XYIII. 175 

Noble conduct of the Duchess de Berri. 

before the hour should expire the spirit of the 
dying would pass to the tribunal of that God 
in whose presence both prince and peasant are 
alike. The memory of all past sins, in such an 
hour, often crowds the soul with its tumultuous 
array. In whispering tones, inaudible to others, 
a few words were interchanged between the 
dying man and his wife. Then two illegitimate 
children, who were born to the duke when he 
was an exile in London, were brought in. It 
seems that he had ever recognized them as his 
own, and that they had been protected and fos- 
tered by both himself and his lawful wife. 

As these children entered the chamber, and 
knelt, sobbing convulsively, at their father's 
dying bed, the duke embraced them tenderly, 
and, turning his fading eye to his wife, said, 

"I know you sufficiently, Caroline, to be as- 
sured that, after me, you will take care of these 
orphans." 

The duchess responded in an action far 
more impressive than words. Taking her 
own babe into her arms from its nurse, she 
drew the unfortunate children to her bosom, 
and said, " Kiss your sister." It was a noble 
deed. All eyes were suffused in tears. Few 
can read the simple record without emotion. 



176 Louis Philippe. [1820, 



Death and burial. 



The duke then received, from the bishop, 
absolution, repeatedly attempting the prayer, 
" My God, pardon me, pardon me ; and pardon 
the man who has taken my life !" 

Just then the king, Louis XVIIL, who was 
very infirm, arrived. "My uncle," said the 
dying man, " give me your hand, that I may 
kiss it for the last time. I entreat you, in the 
name of my death, to spare the life of that 
man." 

The king replied, "You are not so ill as you 
suppose. We will speak of this again." 

"Ah!" exclaimed the duke, "you do not 
say yes. The pardon of that man would have 
softened my last moments, if I could die with 
the assurance that his blood would not flow 
after my death." 

These were his last words. There was a 
slight gasping, a convulsive shuddering passed 
over his frame, and the spirit of the duke took 
its flight to the judgment-seat of Christ. The 
remains were conveyed, with much funereal 
pageantry, to the vaults of St. Denis, the an- 
cient mausoleum of the kings of France. Lou- 
vel, a miserable fanatic, who sought notoriety 
by the murder of a prince, expiated his crime 
upon the scaffold. 



1824.] Death of Louis XYIII. 177 

Character of Louis XVIII. 

Seven months after this assassination, on the 
20th of September, 1820, the Duchess de Berri 
gave birth to a son. He was christened Hen- 
ry, duke of Bordeaux. He is now known as 
the Count de Chambord, the Legitimist candi- 
date for the throne of France. Indeed the Le- 
gitimists regard him as their lawful sover- 
eign, though in exile, and give him the title of 
Henry Y. 

Louis XVIII. retained the throne, upon 
which the Allies had placed him, for eight 
years, until his death. He was a good-natured, 
kind-hearted old man, but so infirm from gout 
and excessive obesity, that he could with diffi- 
culty walk, and he was wheeled around his sa- 
loons in a chair. Lamartine, whose poetic na- 
ture ever bowed almost with adoration before 
hereditary royalty, gives the following pleas- 
ing account of his character : 

"His natural talent, cultivated, reflective, and 
quick, full of recollections, rich in anecdotes, 
nourished by philosophy, enriched by quota- 
tions, never deformed by pedantry, rendered 
him equal, in conversation, to the most re- 
nowned literary characters of his age. M. De 
Chateaubriand had not more elegance, M. De 
Talleyrand more wit, Madame De Stael more 

M 



178 Louis Philippe. [1824. 

Death of Louis XVIII. 

brilliancy. Since the suppers of Potsdam, 
where the genius of Yoltaire met the capacity 
of Frederick the Great, never had the cabinet 
of a prince been the sanctuary of more philos- 
ophy, literature, talent, and taste." 

To this it should be added that he was de- 
voted to the interests of the aristocracy; that 
liis mind was almost exclusively occupied in 
making happy hits in conversation, and in writ- 
ing graceful billet-doux; that the priests and 
the nobles controlled him through the all-per- 
suasive influence of the fascinating Madame Du 
Cayla. He died on the 16th of September, 
1824. As his last hour approached, and his 
extremities becarne cold, and it was manifest 
that he had but a few moments to live, his 
mind remained clear and composed. Assum- 
ing a cheerful air, he said to his family, gather- 
ed around his bed : 

"A king of France may die, but he is never 
ill. Love each other, and thus console your- 
selves for the disasters of our house. Provi- 
dence has replaced us upon the throne." 

He then received extreme unction, bade 
adieu to all, and, ordering the curtains of his 
bed to be closed, composed himself as for or- 
dinary sleep. With the earliest dawn of the 



1824.] Death of Louis XVIII. 179 

Charles X. and family. 

morning the chief physician opened the cur- 
tains, and found that his pulse was just ceasing 
to beat. In a few moments he breathed his 
last. In accordance with court etiquette the 
physician said, solemnly, "The king is dead." 
Then, turning to the king's brother, Charles, 
previously known as the Count d'Artois, he 
bowed and said, "Long live the king." 

Charles X., into whose hands the sceptre thus 
passed, was then in the sixty -seventh year of 
his age — having been born in Yersailles, Octo- 
ber 9, 1757. This unfortunate monarch is rep- 
resented, by his friends, as having been one of 
the most accomplished of men. His horse- 
manship attracted universal admiration. In all 
social circles he charmed every one who ap- 
proached him by his grace and courtesy. He 
was warm-hearted and generous. Though in 
early life a man of pleasure, he had become 
quite a devotee ; and, to an extraordinary de- 
gree, was under the influence of the priesthood. 
Leavins: the affairs of State in the hands of 
others, he gave his time, his thoughts, his ener- 
gies, to the pleasures of the chase. This pur- 
suit became, not his recreation, but the serious 
occupation of his life. 

Charles was the father of two sons. The 



180 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Charles X. and family. 

eldest, and consequently the heir to the crown, 
was the Duke d^Angouleme. He had married 
the daughter of Louis XVI., whose sufferings, 
with her brother, the dauphin, in the Temple, 
have moved the sympathies of the whole civil- 
ized world. The duke and duchess were child- 
less, and with no hope of offspring. 

His second son, the Duke de Berri, had been 
assassinated, as we have mentioned, about four 
years before, as he was coming from the opera, 
leaving his wife enciente. In the course of a 
few months she gave birth to a son — the Duke 
of Bordeaux. This child — now called Count 
de Chambord — was the legitimate heir to the 
throne, next to his uncle, the Duke d'Angou- 
leme. 

Six years of the reign of Charles X. passed 
away, during which the discontent of the peo- 
ple was continually making itself increasingly 
manifest. They i»egarded the Government as 
false to the claims of the masses, and devoted 
only to the interests of the aristocracy. 

The spirit of discontent which had long 
been brooding now rose in loud and angry 
clamor everywhere around the throne. The 
court was blind to its peril ; but thoughtful 
men perceived that the elements for a moral 



1830.] Death of Louis XVIIl, 181 

Ball at the Palais Koyal. 

earthquake were fast accumulating. In the 
midst of these hourly increasing perils, the 
Duke of Orleans, on the 31st of May, 1830, 
gave a ball at the Palais Royal in honor of 
his fiither-in-law, the King of Naples. This 
festival was of such splendor as to astonish 
even splendor- loving Paris, and was long re- 
membered as one of the most brilliant enter- 
tainments the metropolis had ever witnessed. 
The immense fortune of the duke, his refined 
taste, and the grandeur of the saloons of his 
ancestral palace, enabled him almost to outvie 
royalty itself in the brilliance of the fete. 

Vast amphitheatres bloomed with flowers 
in Eden-like profusion. The immense colon- 
nades of the Palais Eoyal were crowded with 
orange-trees, whose opening buds filled the air 
with, fragrance, and whose clusters of golden 
fruit enhanced the beauty of the scene. The 
spacious roofs and rotundas of glass sparkled 
with thousands of wax-lights, creating a spec- 
tacle so gorgeous and glittering that even 
those who were accustomed to royal splendor 
were reminded of the enchanter's palace in 
Oriental fable. 

The marriage of the Duke de Berri, the son 
of Charles X., with Caroline Mary, niece of the 



182 • Louis Philippe. [1880. 



striking remarks of the Duke of Orleans. 

Duchess of Orleans, had produced some recon- 
ciliation between the Bourbon and the Orleans 
branches of the royal family. The king and 
his family this evening, for the first time, in 
regal state visited the Palais Royal. As the 
duke was receiving the congratulations of his 
guests upon the marvellous splendor which 
the palace presented, thronged with courtiers 
sparkling with jewels and decorated with all 
the costly and glittering costumes of the old 
regime, one of the guests, M. Salvandy, shrewd- 
ly observed to the duke, 

"It is, indeed, quite a Neapolitan fete, your 
highness, for we dance upon a volcano." 

The duke- with some emotion replied, "That 
there is a volcano here I believe as firmly as 
you do. But I know that the fault is not 
mine. I shall not have any occasion, hereaf- 
ter, to reproach myself for not having endeav- 
ored to open the eyes of the king. But what 
could be expected when nothing is listened to? 
God only knows where all this will end — I cer- 
tainly do not foresee what is about to happen. 
I can not tell where all those who are produc- 
ing this state of things will be in six months 
hence ; but one thing I do know, which is, 
where I shall be myself. 



1830.] Death of Louis XVIII. 183 

Complaints against the crown. 

" Under all circumstances or changes which 
may occur, my family and myself will remain 
in this palace. This is our throne. Whatever 
may be the peril of so doing, I shall not move 
from the home of my fathers. I shall never 
again consent to separate the fate and fortune 
of myself and children from those of my coun- 
try. This is my unchangeable determination." 

One of the saloons contained two very fine 
paintings of Montmiral and Champ-Aubert, 
two towns in France in which Napoleon, hero- 
ically struggling against dynastic Europe com- 
bined in arms against him, signally defeated 
and drove back the Allies. The duke, being 
asked why he allowed paintings commemora- 
tive of the victories of the Empire to hang 
upon his walls, replied, "Because I like every 
thing French." 

Soon after this the popular complaints 
against the crown became so general, so bitter, 
and the excitement so great, that the king, by 
the advice of the ministers who governed him, 
issued several ordinances which were regarded 
by the people as so despotic, as so subversive 
of all popular rights, as to call for resistance 
by insurrection and the force of arms. 

The first of these famous ordinances suspend- 



184 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

The fatal ordinances. 



ed the liberty of the press, and prohibited the 
publication of any journals excepting such as 
were authorized by the Government. 

The second dissolved the new Chamber of 
Deputies, or Legislature, because the members 
were too liberal in their political opinions, as- 
suming that the electors had been deceived by 
the popular clamor, and had chosen such per- 
sons as they ought not to have chosen. 

The third reduced the number of deputies 
from three hundred and ninety-five to two hun- 
dred and twenty -eight, and so altered the elect- 
oral franchise, in order to secure the return of 
members favorable to the Government, as tr 
deprive a large number of the right of suffrage 
who had heretofore exercised it. 

Such, in brief, were the ordinances which 
overthrew the throne of Charles X. and drove 
the elder branch of the Bourbons into exile. 
There were others issued at the same time, but 
which were of no material importance. 

Frivolous as was the character of Charles X., 
he had sagacity enough to know that such de- 
crees could not be issued in France without 
creating intense agitation. His ministers also, 
though the advocates of the despotic principles 
of the old regime, were men of ability. They 



1830.] Death of Louis XYIII. 185 

Character of the ministry. 

recognized the measures as desperate. Popu- 
lar discontent had reached such a crisis that it 
was necessary either to silence it by despotic 
power or yield to it, introducing reforms which 
would deprive the ministers of their places. 

Prince Polignac was at this time prime min- 
ister. His mother had been the bosom-friend 
of Marie Antoinette. Througli his whole life 
he was the unswerving friend of the Bourbons. 
Implicated in the plot of Georges for the over- 
throw of the First Consul, he was condemned 
to death. ISTapoleon spared his life, and finally 
liberated him, upon which he followed Count 
d'Artois (Charles X.) into exile. Returning 
with the Bourbons, in the rear of the Allied 
armies, he was rewarded for his life-long fidel- 
ity to the ancient regime by the highest honors. 

The sorrows of life had left their impress 
upon his pensive features. He was well-read, 
very decided in his views that the people were 
made to he governed^ not to govern. He was 
energetic, but possessed of so little worldly wis- 
dom that he thought that the people, however 
much exasperated, could be easily subdued by 
determined action. 

M. de la Bourdon naye, Minister of the Inte- 
rior, like Polignac, was an ultra Royalist. He 



186 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



M. de Bourmont. 



had been one of the most violent of the Yen- 
deans in their opposition to the Eevolution, and 
is represented, even by those who were in sym- 
pathy with him, as wishing to govern by a roy- 
alist reign of terror. 

M. de Bourmont, Minister of War, had been 
a staunch Eoyalist in the days of the Revolu- 
tion, struggling with the Yendeans in defense 
of the monarchy. Upon the establishment of 
the Empire he gave his adhesion to Napoleon. 
Being a man of ability, he was placed in re- 
sponsible posts. At Waterloo, upon the eve 
of the great struggle, he deserted to the Allies, 
carrying as his peace-offering the betrayal of 
the emperor's plan of campaign. It is sup- 
posed that his testimony against Marshal Ney 
sealed the fate of that illustrious man. The 
French people had not forgotten his defection 
at Waterloo, and he was exceedingly unpopu- 
lar. 

These were the prominent ministers. The 
other members of the cabinet, though men of 
ability, were not of historic note. The origi= 
nal appointment of these ministers, whose opin- 
ions were so obnoxious and well known, had 
caused great indignation. The liberal press as- 
sailed them with vehemence. The Journal des 



1830.] Death of Louis XVIII. 187 



Dramatic scene. 



Dehats^ after announcing the names of the min- 
isters, exclaimed : 

"The emigration of M. de Polignac, the fury 
of proscription of M. de la Bourdonnaye, de- 
sertion to the enemy in M. de Bourmont — such 
■are the three principles in the three leading 
persons of the administration. Press upon it. 
Nothing but humiliation, misfortune, and dan- 
ger will drive it from power. 

M. Guizot was then editor of the journal Li 
Temps. He had already attained renown. His 
weighty editorials, distinguished alike for co- 
gent argument and depth of philosophical 
thought, carried conviction to the most intel- 
ligent minds. M. Thiers was editor of the Na- 
tionale. His great abilities, already developed 
in his "History of the French tlevolution," 
had given him a commanding position among 
the journalists on the liberal side. Both of 
these distinguished writers, and many others, 
assailed the ministry with such popular effect, 
that it was clear that their utterances must be 
silenced, or the ministry must fall. Hence the 
Ordinances were issued. 

The scene at the siOTino^ of these ordinances 
is represented by Lamartine as quite dramatic. 
The important measure of the coup d^etat was 



188 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Charles X. and his ministers. 



anxiously discussed under the pledge of secre- 
cy. The project of the ministers was cordially 
approved by the king. He is reported to have 
said : 

" It is not the ministry, it is the crown, which 
is attacked. It is the cause of the throne 
against revolution which is at issue. One or 
the other must succumb. I recollect what oc- 
curred in 1789. The first step my unhappy 
brother, Louis XVL, made in retreat before 
the revolutionists was the signal of his ruin. 
They, too, pretended fidelity to the crown, and 
demanded only the dismissal of its ministers. 
He yielded, and all was lost. Gentlemen, I 
will not dismiss you. No! Let them con- 
duct us, if they please, to the scaflPold. But 
let us fight for our rights; and if we are to 
fall, fall sword in hand. I had rather be led 
to execution on horseback than in a cart." 

On the morning of the 25th of Jul}^, 1830, 
the king and his ministers met at the palace of 
St. Cloud to sign the fatal ordinances. They 
all seem to have been in some degree aware of 
the peril of the step. Many of them had passed 
a sleepless night, and were deeply impressed 
with the solemnity of the occasion. They sat 
pale, silent, anxious, as Prince Polignac slowly 



1830.] Death of Louis XVIII. 189 

Their luiauimity. 

read the ordinances and presented them to the 
king for his signature. Charles X. took the 
pen, turned pale, and for a moment hesitated. 
Then raising his eyes to heaven, as if implor- 
ing Divine aid, he said, "The more I think of it, 
the more I am convinced that it is impossible 
to do otherwise than I do." With these words 
he affixed his signature to the document which 
expelled him and his dynasty from France."^ 

The ministers, one after another, countersign- 
ed the ordinances. Not a word was spoken. 
" Despair," says Alison, " was painted on every 
visage." Polignac, in the temporary absence 

* ' ' The ministers took theii' places in silence around the 
fatal table. Charles X. had the dauphin on his right and M. 
de Polignac on his left. He questioned each of his servants, 
one after another, and when he came to M. d'Hausrez, that 
minister repeated his observations of the preceding day. ' ' Do 
you refuse ?" inquired Charles X. "Sire," replied the minis- 
ter, ' ' may I be allowed to address one question to the king ? 
Is your majesty resolved on proceeding, should your ministers 
draw back ?" "Yes," said Charjes, firmly. The ministei' of 
marine took the pen and signed. 

' ' When all the signatures were afiixed, there was a solemn 
and awful pause. An expression of high-wrought energy, 
mingled with uneasiness, sat on the faces of the ministers. 
M. de Polignac's alone Avore a look of triumph. Charles X. 
walked up and down the room with perfect composure." — 
France under Louis Philippe, by Louis Blanc, p. 107. 



190 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



The antagonistic forces. 



of M. Bourmont, was acting Minister of War. 
In reply to the inquiry what means of resist- 
ance the Government had in case of insurrec- 
tion, he replied, with confidence equal to his 
self-deception, 

"No popular movement is to be appre- 
hended. At all events, Paris is sufficiently 
garrisoned to crush any rebellion and guarantee 
})ubliG tranquillity." 

The force upon which Polignac relied con- 
sisted of 11,550 men in Paris, with twelve 
pieces of cannon. There were also fifteen bat- 
talions of infantry and thirty -four squadrons of 
cavalry stationed in towns not far distant, which 
could be rapidly collected to aid the troops 
within the walls, On the other hand, the city 
of Paris, in a general insurrection, could fur- 
nish 200,000 fighting men. Many of these had 
seen actual service. There was a National 
Guard, the militia of the metropolis, organ- 
ized and well armed, consisting of 40,000 men. 
A portion of the royal troops, also, could not 
be relied upon in a struggle with the people. 
General Marmont, one of the marshals of the 
Empire, was in command of the Royalist troops. 
He was exceedingly unpopular in Paris, in con- 
sequence of the feeble defense it was thought 



1830.J Death of Louis XVIII. 191 

Issuing the ordinances. 

he made when the city was captured by the 
Allies. 

The ordinances were seci^etly printed, and 
during the night of the 25th were plitcarded on 
the walls of Paris. They also appeared simul- 
taneously the next morning in the Moniteur. 
Though some of the more sagacious had been 
suspecting that the Government might resort to 
measures of desperation, these ordinances took 
the whole community by surprise. Crowds 
gathered in the coffee-houses, at the doors of 
the public journals, and in all the prominent 
places of resort. There was no sudden ebulli- 
tion of indignation, and no immediate demon- 
strations of violence. The event had come so 
suddenly that the masses were unprepared for 
action, and the leaders required time to decide 
whether it were best to attempt forcible resist 
ance, and, if so, what measures to that end could 
most effectually be adopted. Though through 
out the day no insurrectionary movements 
appeared, still agitation was rapidly on the 
increase, and Paris represented a bee-hive into 
which some disturbing element had been cast. 

The editors of the leading journals, and sev- 
eral others of the most illustrious advocates of 
liberal opinions, held a consultation upon the 



192 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Eisings of opposition. 



state of affairs. But night came, and the result 
of their deliberations was not made known. 
The day had been serene and beautiful, invit- 
ing all the population of Paris into the streets. 
The balmy sumnier night kept them there. 
Innumerable rumors increased the excitement, 
and it was evident that a few words from influ- 
ential lips would create an insurrection, which 
might amount to a revolution. 

The gentlemen who had met in conference 
— forty-four in number — after careful delibera- 
tion, and having obtained the opinion of the 
most celebrated lawyers that the ordinances 
were illegal, gallantly resolved to resist them at 
the hazard of their lives. They accordingly 
issued a protest, to which each one afSxed his 
signature. The boldness of the act command- 
ed the admiration even of the advocates of ar- 
bitrary power. In their protest they said : 

" The Grovernment has lost the character of 
legality which commands obedience. We re- 
sist it in so far as we are concerned. It is for 
France to determine how far resistance should 
extend." 

The liberal journals refused to take out the 
license the ordinances required. This act of 
defiance the Government met by sending the 



1830.] Death of Louis XYIII. 193 

Silencing the journals. 

police to seize the journals and close their print- 
ing-offices. A commissary of police, with two 
gendarmes, repaired to the office of the Temps^ 
edited by M. Guizot, in the Boulevard des Ita- 
liens. They found the doors barred against 
them. A blacksmith was sent for to force the 
entrance. This collected a crowd, and he re- 
fused to act in obedience to the police. A sec- 
ond blacksmith was sent for. As he com- 
menced operations the crowd took his tools 
from him. At length, however, an entrance 
was effected, and a seal was put upon the print- 
ing-presses. This scene, occurring in one of 
the most populous thoroughfares of Paris, cre- 
ated intense agitation. Still, thus far, there had 
been so little commotion that the king and his 
ministers were quite sanguine that their meas- 
ures would prove triumphant. Charles X. was 
so infatuated that on that morning — the 26th — 
he went to Rambouillet, and spent the day in 
hunting. 

During the night of the 26th there was an- 
other very important meeting of the leaders of 
the liberal party at the mansion of M. Casimir 
Perier. About thirty were present. Nearly 
all were members of the Chamber of Deputies, 
and in intellectual strength were among the 

N 



194 Louis Philippe. [1830, 



Diversity of couBsel. 



most illustrious men in France. Anxiously, 
yet firmly, they discussed the course to be pur- 
sued. It was a fearful question to decide. Sub- 
mission placed France, bound helplessly hand 
and foot, under the heel of Bourbon despotism. 
Unsuccessful insurrection would consign them 
either to life-long imprisonment in the dungeon 
or to death upon the scaffold. 

All agreed in condemning the ordinances as 
illegal. The more cautious hesitated at rous- 
ing the energies of insurrection, and submit- 
ting the issue to the decision of the sword. 
The young and impetuous advocated an im- 
mediate appeal to arms. While deliberating, 
a deputation appeared professing to represent 
the electors of Paris, and urged that, as the 
Government was manifestly resolved to sup- 
port the despotic ordinances by force, nothing 
remained to the people but to have recourse to 
insurrection. It was also stated that nearly 
all the workmen from the manufactories were 
in the streets, eager to throw up barricades 
and to defend their rights at every hazard. 

At the same time committees presented 
themselves from various bodies of young men, 
urging the deputies to take the lead of the 
patriotic movement in which the people were 



1880.] Death of Louis XVIII. 195 

The conflict in Paris. 

resolved to engage. Their solicitations were 
intensified by occasional discharges of musket- 
ry in the streets, and by the clatter of iron 
hoofs, as the king's cavalry here and there 
made charges to disperse threatening gather- 
ings, or to prevent the erection of barricades. 
It does not, however, appear that any very de- 
cisive action was taken by this body. Late at 
night it adjourned, to meet again the next day. 

The morning of the 27tli revealed a scene 
of turmoil and agitation such as even excita- 
ble Paris had rarely witnessed. The king and 
his court, with twelve hundred of the troops, 
withdrawn from the city, were at St. Cloud. 
Large bodies of men were surging through the 
streets, apparently without leaders or definite 
object, but ready for any deeds of daring. 
Every hour of the day affairs were more men- 
acing. Frequent reports were brought by the 
police to the ministers at St, Cloud, which rep- 
resented that, though business was generally 
suspended, and there were agitated crowds in 
the streets, still no serious danger was appre- 
hended. 

But General Marmont, who was intrusted 
with the command of the garrison in Paris, 
early in the morning became alarmed in view 



196 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Threatening aspect of affairs. 



of the struggle which he apprehended was 
about to commence, and of the inadequate 
means under his control to meet it. In count- 
ing up his forces he found that he had not 
more than ten thousand troops within the 
walls. Of these not more than four thousand 
could be relied upon in a conflict with the 
people. 

Well might General Marmont tremble. 
From the remote sections and narrow streets 
the populace were thronging to central points. 
The boulevards, from the Place de la Bastile 
to the Madeleine, presented a dense mass, 
whose angry looks, loud words, and violent 
gestures indicated that they would fight with 
desperation should the struggle once com- 
mence. Many of them were skilled in the 
use of arms. They knew how to construct 
barricades. Every house was a fortress from 
whose windows and roof the populace could 
hurl destruction upon the heads of the troops, 
wedged in the narrow streets. And Greneral 
Marmont had reason to fear that of the small 
force under his command six thousand would 
fraternize with the people upon the report of 
the first musket. 

The war-worn marshal skillfully arranged 



1830.] Death of Louis XYIII. 197 

Incidents of the battle. 

his forces, evidently copying the operations of 
Napoleon in his famous repulse of the attack 
of the sections upon the Convention. Three 
battalions were placed at the Carrousel, which 
might be regarded as a vast fortress in the 
centre of the city, walled in by the Tuileries 
and the Louvre. Three battalions were sta- 
tioned in the Place de la Concorde, with two 
pieces of artillery. Three battalions of the 
line were ranged along the boulevards from 
the Place of the Bastile to the Madeleine. 
General Marmont did not wait for an attack 
to be made upon him. He sent out detach- 
ments to scour the streets and to prevent the 
erection of barricades. Reports had reached 
him that several were in process of construc- 
tion in the most narrow streets. 

The first barricade encountered was in the 
Rue St. Honore, nearly in front of the Palais 
Royal. The troops endeavored to disperse the 
defenders by a volley in the air. As this pro- 
duced no effect, they opened upon them with 
p, point-blank discharge, by which several were 
wounded, and one man was killed. The other 
detachments met with no opposition, but re- 
moved several barricades, and dispersed tu- 
multuous gatherings. The agitation was hour- 



198 Lours Philippe. [1830. 

Fraternization of the troops and the populace. 

ly on the increase. Kandom shots were heard 
in different parts of the city. The dead body 
of the man shot while defending the barri- 
cade was paraded in blood-stained ghastliness 
through the streets, exciting frenzied passions. 
The troops of the line, so called, who were 
known to be in sympathy with the people, 
and whom General Marmont distrusted, were 
received with shouts of applause wherever 
they appeared. 

A vast concourse of the people had assem- 
bled in front of the Palais Eoyal. A detach- 
ment of the line was sent to guard the palace. 
The troops and the populace mingled togeth- 
er, talking and laughing. As the multitude 
pressed the troops, they opened their ranks 
and let the living torrent pass through, amidst 
loud cheers. Several armorers' shops were 
broken open, and it was manifest that vigorous 
preparations were going on in anticipation of 
the struggle of the succeeding day. Still the 
king, with an infatuation which is inexplica- 
ble, took no measures to add to the military 
strength at the disposal of General Marmont. 
Thus passed the day of the 27th. It seems 
that at night the king became somewhat 
alarmed, for at eleven o'clock he issued an 



1830.] Death of Louis XYIII. 199 

Eetreat of the king. 

ordinance from his retreat at St. Cloud declar- 
ing Paris to be in a state of siege. 

During all the hours of the night of the 
27th there reigned the calm which precedes 
the storm. The leaders of the Liberal party — 
among whom were to be found many of the 
most intelligent men, the wisest statesmen, and 
the most accomplished generals in France — 
had fully decided to submit their cause to the 
arbitrament of battle. Calm deliberation, or- 
ganization, carefully matured plans, were req- 
uisite to meet the marshalled forces of the mon- 
archy. It was no longer a mere street insur- 
rection, but a kingdom was to be revolution- 
ized. Immediately a new and tremendous im- 
pulse was secretly given to the movement. 
Committees were busy. Agents were active, 
invested with authority which the populace 
instinctively recognized without inquiring into 
the source from which it emanated. 

With the early light of the next morning — 
the 28th — the result of the operations of the 
night was manifest. In the vicinity of the 
Place of the Bastile there is a portion of the 
city densely populated, called the Faubourg 
St. Antoine. It is inhabited by a class in a 
humble condition of life, who have ever taken 



200 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

All Paris In iirms. 

a very prominent part in all the insurrections 
which have agitated Paris. Keckless of their 
own lives as well as of the lives others, thej 
have ever been the most desperate and the 
most dreaded fighters in every conflict in the 
streets. 

With the morning dawn the faubourg seem- 
ed to be swarming. Guided by some mysteri- 
ous but common impulse, a huge and disorder- 
ly mass — ever increasing — of maddened men 
and equally maddened women, armed with 
swords, muskets, pickaxes, and every other 
conceivable weapon of offense or defense, 
surged along through the Eae St. Benis and 
along the crowded boulevards towards the 
Place of the Madeleine, which was occupied 
by the military. At the same time, at several 
important points along the boulevards, the peo- 
ple were busy — men, women, and boys — tear- 
ing up the pavements, seizing and overturning 
omnibuses and carts, cutting down the trees, 
pitching heavy articles of furnitvire out of the 
windows of the houses, and thus constructing 
barricades. 

The points selected and the artistic style of 
structure indicated that military genius of a 
high order guided the movement. Only a 



1830.] Death of Louis XVIII. 201 

Triumph of the iusurgeuts. 

small detachment of troops could be sent out 
from the central position at the Tuileries. As 
they could not be everywhere, the intrench- 
ments of the populace rose in various parts of 
the city, unopposed, with inconceivable rapidi- 
ty, and with almost military precision. Large 
bodies advanced simultaneously to the gun- 
smiths' shops, to the police stations and guard- 
houses, to the arsenal and powder manufacto- 
ry, to the artillery depot of St. Thomas Aqui- 
nas; and the guns, muskets, and ammunition 
thus seized were freely distributed to the peo- 
ple. The National Guard, forty thousand 
strong, was thoroughly armed. The ranks of 
this formidable body were filled with the citi- 
zens of Paris, who were all in sympathy with 
the insurrection. Many of them appeared in 
the streets even in their uniform. 

A band of armed men advanced to the Ho- 
tel de Ville, where but sixteen soldiers were 
stationed on guard. The soldiers, attempting 
no opposition, withdrew unmolested. A huge 
tricolor flag, unfurled from the roof, announced 
with the peal of the tocsin that that important 
post, almost an impregnable citadel in the 
hands of determined men, had fallen into the 
possession of the people. The tidings swept 



202 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Success of the iustirf^ents. 



the streets like a flood, giving a new impulse to 
the universal enthusiasm. A few moments af- 
ter another band burst open the gates of Notre 
Dame, and another tricolor flag waved in the 
breeze from one of its towers ; while the bells 
of the cathedral with their sublime voices pro- 
claimed to the agitated yet exultant masses the 
additional triumph. It was scarcely midday, 
and yet four-fifths of Paris was in the undis- 
puted possession of the insurgents, and, as by 
magic, from twenty spires and towers the tri- 
color flag spread its folds in defiance to the 
banner of the Bourbons. More than a hun- 
dred barricades had been erected, or were in 
the process of erection. Behind them stood 
more than a hundred thousand well-armed, de- 
termined men. With such rapidity and sagac- 
itv had all this been effected that there had 
been scarcely any collision worthy of notice. 
A few charges had been made by the gen- 
darmery in dispersing crowds, and a few ran- 
dom shots had been fired. 

Greneral Marmont, in preparation for assum- 
ing the offensive, concentrated the whole of his 
little band around the Tuileries, and construct- 
ed for himself a fortified camp in the Carrousel 
protected by eight guns. A few troops were 



1830.] Death of Louis XYIII. 203 

Tactics of General Marmout. 

forwarded to him from Yincennes and Ver- 
sailles, so that he could display for the defense 
of that central point thirty-six hundred sol- 
diers of the Guard, tried men, upon whom he 
could rely. Six hundred of these were horse- 
men. Forming three columns, he sent one 
along the banks of the river to recapture the 
Hotel de Ville, to demolish all the barricades, 
and disperse the armed bands, until they reach- 
ed the Place of the Bastile. Another was to 
advance to the same point by the boulevards. 
The third was to force its way through the 
Eue St. Honore to the Market of the Inno- 
cents. Along these three lines the battle now 
raged fiercely, with equal determination on 
each side. The scene of tumult, carnage, hor- 
ror, which ensued can neither be described nor 
imagined. The streets were narrow. Every 
house was a fortress, from whose windows a 
deadly fire was poured upon the troops. The 
combatants, inflamed by the fury and terror of 
the strife, neither asked nor granted quarter. 
Hour after hour they fought, Frenchmen 
against Frenchmen, brother against brother, 
and the pavements were clotted with blood. 
Barricades were taken and retaken. There 
were triumphant charges and murderous re- 
pulses. 



204 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Prosrress of the iusurrectiou. 



Chaptek YII. 
Charles X. Dethroned. 

NIG-HT came, the night of the 28th of July, 
1830. The royal troops, having really ac- 
complished nothing of any moment in their 
conflict with the insurgent people, were order- 
ed to avail themselves of the darkness to re- 
treat from all the positions they had gained. 
Thus, before midnight the troops, virtually de- 
feated, sought refuge in concentrating them- 
selves in their fortified camp at the Carrousel. 
It was with no little difficulty that some of 
them fought their way back to regain the quar- 
ters which they had left. 

Two parties must ever co-operate in such 
scenes as we are now describins:. There must 
be not only bold men, with arms in their hands, 
to achieve, but there must be sagacious men in 
council to plan and direct. During the day a 
sort of provisional government was established 
by the insurgents, which continued in session 
until midnight. The voices of the street can- 



1830.] OiiAitLES X. Dethkoned. 205 



Night of tumult. 



non had summoned Lafayette to Paris, and he 
consecrated his world-wide renown to the cause 
of popular rights, for v/hich he had fought in 
America, and to which he had been ever true 
in Europe. M. Lafitte, the wealthiest banker 
in Paris, consecrated his fortune to the cause. 
M. Thiers, never prone to follow any lead but 
that of his own vigorous mind, though he had 
united with other journalists in recommending 
resistance, now objected to any resort to vio- 
lence, and demanded that the resistance should 
be legal only. Being outvoted by his more 
practical compeers — Lafayette, Lafitte, and 
Mauguin — he retired in displeasure, and, aban- 
doning the conflict, took refuge in the country 
at some distance from Paris. To his remon- 
strances Lafayette replied in language which 
one would deem convincing to every mind : 

"Legal means have been cut short by the 
ordinances in the Moniteur^ and the discharges 
of artillery you hear in the streets. Victory 
can alone now decide the question." 

There was but little sleep for any one in 
Paris that night. A population of a million 
and a half of people, crowded in narrow streets, 
was in a state of the wildest excitement. The 
air was filled with rumors of the approaching 



206 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



The "Marseillaise Hymn." 



forces of the monarchy. The tramp of armed 
men, the rumbling of the ponderous enginery 
of war, the clamor of workmen throwing up 
barricades, the shouts of the mob, and often, 
rising above all, the soul-stirring strains of the 
" Marseillaise Hymn," pealed forth from thou- 
sands of impassioned lips, together with the 
darkness of the night, the flash of torches, the 
blaze of bonfires, presented a spectacle sub- 
lime beyond comprehension. The "Marseillaise 
Hymn" is unquestionably the most powerful 
composition in the world, both in its words 
and its music, to rouse the populace to a fren- 
zy of enthusiasm. We give below a vigorous 
translation of the first verse : 

Ye sons of France, awake to gloiy! 

Hark ! hark ! what myriads bid you rise I 
Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary, 

Behold their tears and hear their cries ! 
Shall hateful tyrants, mischief breeding, 

With hireling hosts, a ruffian band, 

Affright and desolate the land, 
Wliile peace and liberty lie bleeding ? 

(^Chorus.) To arms! to arms, ye brave! 

Th' avenging sword unsheath ! 
March on ! march on ! all hearts resolved 
On liberty or death ! 

But no translation can equal the force of the 
original. 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 207 



Consternation of the court. 



The king and his courtiers at St. Cloud were 
struck with consternation as they received the 
tidings of the general and successful revolt. 
The booming of the cannon in the streets of 
Paris could be distinctly heard. With his spy- 
glass, from the heights behind the chateau, the 
king could see the tricolor, the representative 
of deadly hostility to his dynasty, unfurled 
from the Hotel de Ville and from the towers 
of Notre Dame, and then from more than twen- 
ty other prominent points in the city. At four 
o'clock in the afternoon a dispatch from Gen- 
eral Marmont informed the king of the desper- 
ate state of affairs. The Eoyal Guard, com- 
posed largely of Swiss mercenaries, had been 
faithful to discipline. But the troops of the 
line, all Frenchmen, had in many instances re- 
fused to fire upon the insurgents. 

The fearful and unexpected crisis roused the 
king to action. It is said he displayed more 
of coolness and energy than any of his minis- 
ters. Orders were sent to General Marmont 
to concentrate his forces as speedily as possible 
at the Tuileries. Agents were dispatched to 
all the divisions of the Eoyal Guard garrisoned 
in the towns in the vicinity of Paris to break 
camp immediately, and move with the utmost 



208 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

The royal family. 

haste to the capital. The king's eldest son, 
the Duke d'Angouleme, of whom we have pre- 
viously spoken as having married his cousin, 
the unhappy but heroic and very noble daugh- 
ter of Louis XVI., was with his father at St. 
Cloud. The duchess was absent. The widow 
also of the king's second son, the Duke de Ber- 
ri, was at St. Cloud with her two children, a 
daughter ten years old, and the little boy, the 
Duke of Bordeaux (Count de Chambord), nine 
years of age. These constituted the royal fam- 

" While Charles X. thought only of inspir- 
ing all around him with his own fatal security, 
a bold scheme was concocting, almost before his 
eyes, in the apartments of Madame de Gentaul. 
Convinced of the old monarch's impotence to 
defend his dynasty, Greneral Yincent had re- 
solved to save royalty without the king's co- 
operation, unknown to the king, and, if neces- 
sary, despite the king. He went to Madame 
de Grentaul and set forth to her that, in the ex- 
isting state of things, the fate of the monarchy 
depended upon a heroic resolve, and he there- 
fore proposed to her to take the Duchess de 
Berri and her son, the Duke of Bordeaux, to 
Paris. He suggested that they should take 



1830.] Charles X. Detiikoned. 209 



The Duchess de Berri. 



Neuilly in their way, get hold of the Duke of 
Orleans, and oblige him by main force to take 
part in the hazard of the enterprise. They 
should then enter Paris by the faubourgs, and 
the Duchess de Berri, exhibiting the royal 
child to the people, should confide him to the 
generosity of the combatants. Madame de 
Gentaul approved of this scheme. In spite of 
its adventurous character, or rather for that 
very reason, it won upon the excitable imagi- 
nation of the Duchess de Berri, and every thing- 
was arranged for carrying it into execution. 
But the infidelity of a confederate put Charles 
X. in possession of the plot, and it broke 
down.""^ 

The Duke d'Angouleme, called the Dau- 
phin, was a very respectable man, without any 
distinguishing character. His wife, disciplined 
in the school not merely of sorrow, but of such 
woes as few mortals have ever been called to 
endure, had developed a character of truly he- 
roic mould. The Duchess de Berri was young, 
beautiful, and fascinating. Her courage, en- 
thusiasm, and love of adventure, as subsequent- 
ly displayed in the eyes of all Europe, were 
perhaps never surpassed. Every generous 
* Les Dix Ans de Louis Philippe, par Louis Blanc. 

o 



210 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Embarrassment of the officers. 



heart will cherish emotions of regret in view 
of that frailty which has consigned her name 
to reproach. The two children of the Duchess 
de Berri were too young to comprehend the 
nature of the events which were transpiring. 
Even while the bloody strife was in progress, 
and the din of the conflict reached their ears, 
these two innocent children were amusing 
themselves in a game in which Mademoiselle 
led the rebels, and the Duke of Bordeaux at 
the head of his Eoyal Guard repulsed them. 

The cabinet ministers, under the protection 
of the troops, were in permanent session at the 
Tuileries. Prince Polignac, a thoroughly im- 
practical man, who was at the head of the Gov- 
ernment, seems not at all to have comprehend- 
ed the true state of affairs. When General 
Marmont sent him word, on the evening of the 
28th, that the troops of the line were fraterniz- 
ing with the people, he is reported to have re- 
plied, with extraordinary coolness and simplic- 
ity, " Well, if the troops have gone over to the 
insurgents, we must fire upon the troops." 

Many of these officers found themselves in a 
very painful situation, embarrassed by the ap- 
parently conflicting claims of duty — fidelity to 
their sovereign on the one hand, and fidelity 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 211 

Eesiguatiou of Count de Raoul. 

to the rights of the people on the other. 
Some, like Greneral Marmont, remained faith- 
ful to their colors, some silently abandoned 
their posts, but refused to enter the ranks of 
the people to fight against their former com- 
rades ; some openly passed over to the people 
and aided them in the struggle, thus with cer- 
tainty forfeiting their own lives should the 
royal troops conquer. The following letter 
from Count de Eaoul to Prince de Polignac, 
resigning his commission, will give the reader 
some idea of the embarrassments with which 
these honorable men were agitated: 

" MoNSEiGNEUR, — After a day of massacres 
and disasters, entered on in defiance of all 
laws, divine and human, and in which I have 
taken part only from respect to human con- 
siderations, for which I reproach myself, my 
conscience imperiously forbids me to serve a 
moment longer. I have given, in the course 
of my life, proofs sufficiently numerous of my 
devotion to the king, to warrant me, without 
exposing my intentions to unjust suspicions, 
to draw a distinction between what emanates 
from him and the atrocities which are com- 
mitted in his name. I have the honor to re- 
quest, monseigneur, that you will lay before 



212 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



The troops desert. 



the king my resignation of my commission as 
captain of his guard." 

In the confusion of those hours it appears 
that this letter did not reach its destination. 
M. Polignac writes : " I never received this 
letter, I would have sent it back to its author. 
In the moment of danger no one's resignation 
is accepted." 

The dismal night of the 28th passed quick- 
ly away, as both parties summoned their 
mightiest energies for the death-struggle on 
the morrow. The truce of a few hours, which 
darkness and exhaustion compelled, was fa- 
vorable to the people. I think it was Madame 
de Stael who made the shrewd remark that 
"there is nothing so successful as success." 
The real victory which the people had 
achieved not only inspired the combatants 
with new courage, but induced thousands, 
who had hesitated, to swell their ranks, and 
the troops of the line very generally deserted 
the defense of the Government and passed 
over to the people. 

Early in the morning of the 29th the heroic 
little band of the Guard stationed at the Tuile- 
ries — heroic in their devotion to discipline, 
though unconsciously maintaining a bad cause 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 213 

Tactics of General Marmout. 

— received a reinforcement of fifteen hundred 
infantry and six hundred cavalry. This, how- 
ever, did but little more than make up for the 
losses in killed and wounded of the preceding 
day, and as most of the troops of the line had 
now gone over to the people, the cause of the 
Government seemed hopeless. As General 
Marmont counted up his resources, he found 
that he had but five thousand effective men 
and eight guns to defend his position at the 
Taileries. A hundred thousand combatants, 
most of them well armed and disciplined, and 
renowned for bravery, surrounded him. Mil- 
itary men who may be familiar with the local- 
ities, either by observation or from maps, may 
be interested in seeing how General Marmont 
disposed of his force to meet the emergency. 

A Swiss battalion occupied the Carrousel. 
Two more Swiss battalions were stationed in 
the Louvre, a fortress which could not easilv 
be stormed. Two battalions were placed in 
the Rue de Rivoli, to guard the northern en- 
trance to the Carrousel. Three battalions of 
the Guard and a regiment of cavalry occupied 
the garden of the Tuileries and the spacious 
Place de la Concorde, outside of the iron rail- 
ing. Two battalions of the line, who had not 



214 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

The struggle continued. 

yet abandoned their colors, were stationed in 
the Eue Castiglione, which abuts upon the 
garden near its central northern entrance. 

By this arrangement General Marmont, if 
sorely pressed, could rapidly concentrate his 
whole force, either in the Carrousel or in the 
garden of the Tuileries, where he could easily 
for some time hold an army at bay. Should 
retreat be found necessary, there was open be- 
fore him the broad avenue of the Champs Ely- 
sees. The ground which the royal troops oc- 
cupied was all that remained under the con- 
trol of the Government. The whole of the re- 
mainder of Paris was in possession of the in- 
surgents. 

It was well known that General Marmont 
could feel but little sympathy in the cause 
which, in obedience to his oath, he felt com- 
pelled to defend. The insurgents were now 
pressing the troops on every side. An inces- 
sant fire of musketry, accompanied by loud 
shouts, indicated the renewed severity with 
which the battle was beginning' to rage. The 
Provisional Government, anxious to arrest, if 
possible, the carnage inevitable upon the con- 
tinuance of the struggle, dispatched M. Arago, 
the celebrated philosopher, who was an inti- 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 215 

Interview between General Marmont and M. Arago. 

mate friend of General Marmont, to confer 
with him upon the subject. The philosopher 
was introduced to the warrior, seated upon his 
horse in the middle of the Carrousel, sur- 
rounded by his staff of ofl&cers. The follow- 
ing is, in substance, the conversation which is 
represented as having taken place between 
them. M. Arago first urged General Marmont 
to imitate the troops of the line, and, with his 
Guard, espouse the cause of the people, which 
was the cause of liberty and justice. The 
general firmly and somewhat passionately re- 
plied, 

" No ! propose nothing to me which will 
dishonor me." 

M. Arago then urged him to abandon a bad 
cause, to surrender his command, retire to St. 
Cloud, and return his sword to the king, and 
no longer to fight in defense of despotic meas- 
ures, and against the people, who were strug- 
gling only for their rights. The general re- 
plied : 

" You know very well whether or not I ap- 
prove of those fatal and odious ordinances. 
But I am a soldier. I am in the post which 
has been intrusted to me. To abandon that 
post under the fire of sedition, to desert my 



216 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Firmness of Marmont. 

troops, to be unfaithful to my king, would be 
desertion, flight, ignominy. My fate is fright* 
ful. But it is the decree of destiny, and I 
must go through with it."* 

While they were conversing, the battle was 
still raging at the outposts with the clamor of 
shouts, musketry, and booming cannon. An 
officer came, covered with dust, and bleeding 
from his wounds, to urge that reinforcements 
should be dispatched to one of the outposts 
which was hotly assailed. "I have none to 
send," said the general, in tones of sadness and 
despair. " They must defend themselves." 

These two illustrious men, in heart both in 
sympathy, but by the force of circumstances 
placed in opposite parties, arrayed in deadly 
strife, after a long and melancholy interview 
separated, with the kindest feelings, each to 
act his part, and each alike convinced that the 
Bourbon monarchy was inevitably and rapidly 

* ' ' The Due de Eaguse found himself invested with a 
real military dictatorship. His situation was a cruel one. 
If he took part with the insurgents, he betrayed a king who 
relied upon him. If he put so many mothers in mourning, 
without even believing in the justice of his cause, he com- 
mitted an atrocity. If he stood aloof, he was dishonored. 
Of these three lines of conduct he adopted that Avhich was 
most fatal to the people." — Louis Blanc. 



1830.] Chakles X. Dethroned. 217 

Success of the insurgents. 

approaching its end. The Provisional Gov- 
ernment, so hastily and imperfectly organized, 
had also sent a deputation to the ministers as- 
sembled in the Tuileries. But Polignac and 
his associates refused them admission. The 
decisive decree was then passed by the Provis- 
ional Government that the king and his min- 
isters were public enemies, and orders were 
issued to press the royal troops on every side 
with the utmost vigor. 

The Hotel de Yille became the head-quar- 
ters of the insurgents, and the Provisional Gov- 
ernment transferred itself there. The military 
government of Paris was given to Lafayette. 
The royal troops were speedily driven in to 
the vicinity of the Louvre, and the situation of 
the ministers in the Tuileries became alarm- 
ing. They decided that it was necessary for 
them to retire to St. Cloud. Before setting 
out they sent for General Marmont, that they 
might ascertain his means of defense. 

" You may tell the king," said General Mar- 
mont, '' that, come what may, and though the 
entire population of Paris should rise up 
against me, I can hold this position for fifteen 
days without further reinforcements. This 
position is impregnable." 



218 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Capture of artillery. 

As this statement was repeated to the king 
he was much cheered by it. The monarchy 
was much stronger in the provinces than in 
Paris. The populace of the capital could do 
but little outside of its walls. A few days 
would give an opportunity to assemble numer- 
ous regiments of the Guard from the various 
positions they occupied in the vicinity of the 
metropolis. But affairs were rapidly assuming 
a more fatal aspect in Paris than General Mar- 
mont had deemed possible. The whole of the 
city, except the ground held by the royal 
troops around the Tuileries, was in the hands 
of the insurgents. An impetuous band of 
students from the Polytechnic School rushed 
upon and took every piece of artillery in the 
Rue St. Honore. 

The regiment placed in the Rue Casti- 
glione, to guard the great entrance into the 
garden of the Tuileries from the boulevards, 
through the Rue de la Paix, opened its ranks, 
and the triumphant populace, with shouts 
which rang through Paris, entered the iron- 
railed inclosure. These disasters caused the 
withdrawal of a portion of the troops who had 
for some time been defendino- the Louvre from 
the colonnade opposite the Church of St. Ger- 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 219 

Retreat of the Royalists. 

main I'Auxerrois, where the insurgents were 
posted in great strength. Thus encouraged, 
the insurgents rushed vehemently across the 
street, and took the Louvre by storm. Flood- 
ing the palace like an ocean tide, they opened 
a deadly fire from the inner windows upon the 
Swiss in the Carrousel. 

These brave men, thus assailed where suc- 
cessful resistance was hopeless, were thrown 
into a panic. With bullets whistling around 
them, deafened by the roar of the battle and 
the shouts of infuriated men, and seeing their 
comrades dropping every moment upon the 
pavement dead or wounded, they fled in wnld 
disorder through the arch of the Tuileries into 
the garden, into which, from the side gate, as 
we have mentioned, the insurgents were pour- 
ing. 

All was lost, and, as it were, in a moment. 
Such are the vicissitudes of battle. Greneral 
Marmont rushed to the rear, the post of dan- 
ger and of honor in a retreat. He did every 
thing which skill and courage could do to re- 
store order, and succeeded in withdrawing his 
little band into the grand avenue of the 
Champs Elysees, through which they rapidly 
marched out of Paris, leaving the metropolis 



220 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

General Marmont and the king. 

in the hands of the insurgents. In the midst 
of the storm of death which swept their re- 
treating ranks General Marmont was the last 
to leave the garden of the Tuileries. One 
hundred of the Swiss troops, who had been 
posted in a house at the junction of the Eue 
de Eichelieu and the Eue St. Honore, were un- 
fortunately left behind. They perished to a 
man. 

Did these heroic troops do right in thus 
proving faithful to their oaths, their colors, and 
their king? Did these heroic people do right 
in thus resisting tyranny and contending for 
liberty at the price of their blood ? Alas for 
man ! Let us learn a lesson of charity. 

General Marmont having collected his bleed- 
ing and exhausted band in the Bois de Bou- 
logne, where pursuit ceased, galloped across 
the wood to St. Cloud, in anguish of spirit, to 
announce to the king his humiliating defeat. 

" Sire," said this veteran of a hundred bat- 
tles, with moistened eyes and trembling lips, 
"it is my painful duty to announce to your 
majesty that I have not been able to maintain 
your authority in Paris. The Swiss, to whom 
I intrusted the defense of the Louvre, seized 
with a sudden panic, have abandoned that im- 




PALACE OF ST. CLODI). 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 223 

Consternation at St. Cloud. 

portant post. Carried away myself by the 
torrent of fugitives, I was unable to rally the 
troops until they arrived at the arch of the 
Etoile, and I have ordered them to continue 
their retreat to St. Cloud. A ball directed at 
me has killed the horse of my aid-de-camp by 
my side. I regret that it did not pass through 
my head. Death would be nothing to me 
compared to the sad spectacle which I have 
witnessed." 

The ministers were called in. All were 
struck with consternation. The chateau of 
St. Cloud is but six miles from Paris. Thou- 
sands of men, maddened, savage, ripe for any 
deeds of outrage, might in an hour surround 
the castle and cut of all possibility of retreat. 
There was no time for deliberation. As usual 
on such occasions, confused and antagonistic 
views were hurriedly offered. M. de Kanville, 
who had the evening before advised measures 
of compromise, was now for a continuance of 
the conflict. 

" The throne is overturned, we are told," 
said he ; "the evil is great, but I believe it is 
exaggerated ; I can not believe that the mon- 
archy is to fall without a combat. Happen 
what may, Paris is not France. If, however, 



224 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Recall of the ordinances. 



the genius of evil is again to prove triumph- 
ant, if the legitimate throne is again to fall, let 
it fall with honor; shame alone has no fu- 
ture." These sentiments were strongly sup- 
ported by the Duke d'Angouleme. 

The king, however, either from a constitu- 
tional want of heroism, or from a praiseworth}^ 
desire to save France from the horrors of a 
protracted civil war, refused to appeal any lon- 
ger to the energies of the sword. He hoped, 
however, that by dismissing the obnoxious 
ministers, and revoking the ordinances, the 
people might be appeased. A decree in ac- 
cordance with this resolve was immediately 
prepared and signed. A new ministry was 
also announced, consisting of very popular 
men. 

It is said that the Duke d'Angouleme paced 
the floor, quivering with indignation, as this 
decree was signed, and that the discarded min- 
isters left the council -chamber "with tears in 
their eyes and despair in their hearts." The 
new ordinances were hastily dispatched to the 
Provisional Government at the Hotel de Yille. 
"It is too late," was the reply. " The throne 
of Charles X. has melted away in blood." 
Some few of the members, dreading the anar- 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 225 

Scenes of confusion. 

chy which might follow the demolition of the 
throne, urged that the envoys might be received, 
as it was still possible to come to an accommo- 
dation. But their voices were drowned by 
cries from all parts of the hall, " It is too late. 
We will have no more transactions with the 
Bourbons." 

It would only bewilder the reader to attempt 
a narrative of the scenes of desperation, recrim- 
ination, confusion, and dismay which simulta- 
neously ensued. M. de Montmart, whom the 
king had appointed in place of Prince Polig- 
nac as the new President of the Council, a noble 
of vast wealth, and one of the bravest of men, 
set out in his shirt-sleeves, disguised as a peas- 
ant, hoping to gain access to the Provisional 
Government, and, by his personal influence, to 
save the monarchy. His mission was in vain. 
General Marmont, to spare the useless shed- 
ding of blood, entered into a truce — some said 
a capitulation — with the revolutionary forces. 
The Duke d'Angouleme, in his rage, called the 
venerable marshal to his face a traitor. In 
endeavoring to wrest from him his sword, the 
duke severely wounded his own hand. Gen- 
eral Marmont was put under arrest ; but soon, 
by the more considerate king, was released. 

P 



226 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Retreat to Versailles. 

The king, with most of the royal family and 
court, retired to the chateau of Trianon, at Ver- 
sailles, four or five miles farther back in the 
country. The Duke d'Angouleme was left in 
command of such troops of the guard and of the 
line as could be collected, to act as rear-guard 
at St. Cloud. But scarcely had Charles X. es- 
tablished himself at Trianon ere the duke pre- 
sented himself in the presence of his father, with 
the disheartening intelligence that the troops 
stationed at the bridge of St. Cloud to prevent 
the insurgents from crossing the Seine, had re- 
fused to fire upon them. In consequence, the 
revolutionary forces had taken possession of 
the chateau, and were preparing to march upon 
Trianon. 

The king had gathered around him at Tri- 
anon about twelve thousand troops. Some of 
them were troops of the line. He knew not 
what reliance could be placed in their fidelity. 
Alarm -couriers were continually arriving with 
appalling tidings. Men, women, and boys, in- 
flamed with passion, and many delirious with 
brandy — on foot, and in all sorts of vehicles — a 
motley throng of countless thousands — were on 
the march to attack him. The king had not 
forgotten the visit of the mob of Paris to his 



1§80.] Charles X. Dethroned. 227 

To Rambouillet. 

brother Louis XVI. and family at Yersailles — 
their captivity — their sufferings in the dungeon 
and on the scaffold. Another and an imme- 
diate retreat was decided upon to Eambouillet, 
a celebrated royal hunting -seat, about thirty 
miles from Paris. It was midnight when the 
king and his family, in the deepest dejection, 
under escort of the Royal Guard, ten thousand 
strong, reached Rambouillet. 

The Duke d'Angouleme still earnestly ad- 
vocated the most determined resistance. But 
the king, an old man who had already num- 
bered his threescore years and ten, was thor- 
oughly disheartened. After a few hours of 
troubled repose he, on the following morning, 
assembled his family around him, and communi- 
cated his intention of abdicating in favor of his 
grandson, the Count de Chambord. His son, 
the Duke d'Angouleme, renouncing his rights 
as heir to the throne, assented to this arrange- 
ment. The king announced this event in a let- 
ter to Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans, appoint- 
ing the duke lieutenant-general of France — 
requesting him to proclaim the accession of the 
Count de Chambord, as Henry Y., to the throne, 
and authorizing him to act as regent during 
the minority of the king. 



228 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Abdication. 

The act of abdication — drawn np infor- 
mally as a letter to the Duke of Orleans — con- 
tained the following expressions : 

" I am too deeply distressed by the evils that 
afflict, or that may seem to impend over my 
people, not to have sought a means to prevent 
them. I have, therefore, resolved to abdicate 
the crown in favor of my grandson. The 
dauphin (the Duke d'Angouleme), who par- 
ticipates in my sentiments, likewise renounces 
his rights in favor of his nephew. You will 
therefore have, in your quality of lieutenant- 
general of the kingdom, to cause to be pro- 
claimed the accession of Henry Y. to the crown. 
You will, furthermore, take all measures that 
befit you to regulate the forms of the Govern- 
ment during the minority of the new king. 

"I renew to you, my cousin, the assurance 
of the sentiments with which I am your affec- 
tionate cousin, Charles." 

But in the mean time an army of uncounted 
thousands was hastily organized in Paris to 
march upon Rambouillet and drive the king 
out of France. This formidable array of de- 
termined men was crowded into carriages, cab- 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 229 



M. Barrot and the kins. 



riolets, omnibuses, and vehicles of every kind, 
and was pushed forward as rapidly as possible. 
General Pajol commanded the expedition. 
General Excelmans was intrusted with the ad- 
vance-guard. This motley mass was trundled 
along, singing the "Marseillaise" and other rev- 
olutionary songs, and presenting far more the 
aspect of a mob than that of an army. In the 
position in which the king was placed, with 
troops upon many of whom he could place but 
little reliance, they were the more to be dread- 
ed. Three commissioners were sent in advance 
of the revolutionary troops to demand of the 
king an unqualified resignation of the crow^n 
for himself and his descendants. The king re- 
ceived them with calmness and dignity. 

" What do you wish with me ?" he said. " I 
have arranged every thing with the Duke of 
Orleans, my lieutenant-general of the king- 
dom." 

M. Odillon Barrot replied, "If the king would 
avoid involving the kingdom in unheard-of 
calamities and a useless effusion of blood, it is 
indispensable that his majesty and his family 
should instantly leave France. There are 
eis^htv thousand men who have issued from 
Paris, ready to fall on the royal forces." 



230 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Departure for Cherbourg. 

The king took Marshal Maison, another of 
the commissioners, aside into the embrasure of 
a window, and said to him, " Marshal Maison, 
you are a soldier and a man of honor. Tell 
me, on your word of honor, is the army which 
has marched out of Paris against me really 
eighty thousand strong?" 

"Sire," the marshal replied, "I can not give 
you the number exactly; but it is very nu- 
merous, and may amount to that force." 

"Enough," said the king; "I believe you, 
and I consent to every thing to spare the 
blood of my Guard." 

Orders were immediately issued for the 
prompt departure of the court for Cherbourg, 
there to embark for some foreign land. In a 
few hours the mournful procession was in 
movement. The long cortege of carriages was 
accompanied by several regiments of the 
Guard. Sad indeed must have been the emo- 
tions of the inmates of those carriages as they 
commenced their journey from the splendors 
of royalty to the obscurity of exile. Slowly 
this funereal procession of departed power was 
seen winding its way through the distant prov- 
inces of the realm, to find in foreign lands a 
refuge and a grave. 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 231 

St. Maintenon. 

The first night they stopped at Maintenon, 
where the illustrious family of Noailles re- 
ceived the royal fugitives with sympathy and 
generous hospitality, in one of the most an- 
cient and splendid country-seats of the king- 
dom. Here, the next morning, the king took 
leave of the greater part of his Guard. He 
reserved for his escort but a few hundred se- 
lect troops, with six pieces of cannon. Gen- 
eral Marmont, in whom the king reposed im- 
plicit trust, was placed in command of this 
little band, which was to guard the illustrious 
refugees to the coast. 

The parting of the King from that large por- 
tion of the Guard from whom he here sepa- 
rated presented a touching spectacle. Loyalty 
with these soldiers was a religious principle. 
In these hours of disaster, whatever might 
have been the faults of their fallen sovereign, 
they forgot them all. They were drawn up in 
military array along the noble avenue of the 
park. As the royal cortege passed between 
them they presented arms, silent in their grief, 
while many of these hardy veterans were in 
tears. The king himself was for the moment 
quite unmanned, and, bowing his head, sobbed 
aloud. 



232 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Mournful journey. 

Twelve days were occupied in the slow 
journey to Cherbourg. It was deemed neces- 
sary to avoid all the large towns, and to take 
unfrequented paths, that they might not be 
arrested in their progress by any popular up- 
rising. Before reaching Cherbourg the king 
had the mortification of hearing that the Or- 
leans throne had been reared upon the ruins 
of the Bourbon throne. During the whole of 
this sad journey General Marmont, whose life 
had been so full of adventure and vicissitude, 
rode on horseback by the side of the carriage 
of the king. Man}?- of the most illustrious 
noblemen and most distinguished ladies of 
France, faithful to their principles and their 
king in the hour of misfortune, added by their 
presence to the mournful pageantrj^ of the 
cavalcade. The peasants even were awed by 
this spectacle of fallen grandeur. Though 
they gathered in crowds around the carriages 
in the villages through which they passed the 
night, no word of insult was offered. In si- 
lence they gazed upon the scene, and not un- 
frequently tears were seen to moisten eyes 
quite unused to weep. 

When the cavalcade reached Yalognes, a 
few miles from Cherbourg, as all danger was 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 235 

Parting with the Guard. 

passed, the king decided to dismiss the re- 
mainder of the Guard. Gathering around him 
the officers, and six of the oldest soldiers of 
each company composing his escort, he re- 
ceived from them the royal banners of the 
elder house of Bourbon, which could no long- 
er be unfurled in France. The Duke and the 
Duchess d'Angouleme, and the Duchess de 
Berri, with her daughter, and her son, the 
Duke of Bordeaux, stood by his side. With 
a trembling voice, which was finally broken by 
sobs, the king said : 

" I receive these standards, and this child " 
(pointing to the Duke of Bordeaux) "will one 
day restore them to you. The names of each 
of you, inscribed on your muster-rolls, and pre- 
served by my grandson, will remain registered 
in the archives of the royal family, to attest 
forever my misfortunes, and the consolation I 
have received from your fidelity." 

This was one of time's tragedies — the de- 
thronement of a dynasty. There are but few 
who will not, in some degree, appreciate the 
sublimity of the scene. All present were in 
tears, and loud sobs were heard. The king 
and his family then laid aside all the insignia 
of royalty, and assumed the dress more appro- 



236 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Louis seeks an asylum. 



priate to exiles. The king also wrote to the 
King of England and to the Emperor of Aus- 
tria, announcing his dethronement, and solicit- 
ing an asylum in each of their realms. 

It would seem, however, that Charles X., 
who twice before had been driven into exile, 
did by no means relinquish the idea of regain- 
ing the crown for his family. In taking leave 
of Prince Polignac, who more than any one 
else was responsible for the obnoxious ordi- 
nances, he said : 

" I recollect only your courage. I do not 
impute to you our misfortunes. Our cause 
was that of God, of the throne, and of the 
people. Providence often proves its servants 
by suffering, and defeats the best designs for 
reasons superior to what our limited faculties 
can discern. But it never deceives upright 
consciences. Nothing is yet lost for our 
house. I go to combat with one hand, and to 
nea:otiate with the other. Retire behind the 
Loire, where you will find an asylum from the 
vengeance of the people in the midst of my 
army, which has orders to assemble at Char- 
tres." 

"Charles X.," writes Louis Blanc, "was 
tranquil. The aspect of the dauphine in tears, 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 237 

Journey to Cherbourg. 

of his woe-begone courtiers, and of the two 
children of the Duchess de Berri, who, in their 
ignorance, found amusement in the novelty of 
every thing about them — to all this he was in- 
sensible, or at least resigned. But the sight of 
a bit of tricolored ribbon, or a slight neglect 
of etiquette, was enough to excite his petu- 
lance. It was necessary, in the small town of 
L'Aigle, to have a square table made, accord 
ing to court usage, for the dinner of a mon- 
arch who was losing an empire. Thus he 
showed, combined in his person, that excess of 
grandeur and of littleness which is acquired 
from the practice of royalty." 

The journey to Cherbourg was sad and sol- 
emn. The two princesses, the Duchess d'An- 
gouleme and the Duchess de Berri, walked 
when the weather was fine. Their dress was 
very much neglected, because their attendants 
had not been able to bring away linen or 
clothes. A grave and pensive expression sat 
on the faces of the beholders wherever the 
cortege passed. Some officers presented them- 
selves on the road, bowing in homage to ex 
piring royalty. " Gentlemen," said the king, 
"keep those worthy sentiments for that child, 
who alone can save you all ;" and he pointed 



238 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Arrival at Cherbourg. 



to the little fiaxen-liaired head of the Duke of 
Bordeaux, at the window of a carriage follow- 
ing his own. 

When the melancholy cortege, consisting of 
a long train of carriages, reached the cliffs of 
Cherbourg, they beheld the ocean spread out in 
its apparently illimitable expanse before them. 
Here they halted. For a moment dismay 
filled their hearts ; for the advance couriers 
came galloping back with the tidings that a 
numerous band of armed insurgents, a tumult- 
uous mob, with shoutings like the roarings of 
the sea, were advancing to assail the royal par- 
ty. The king and his son, the Duke d'An- 
gouleme, hastily stepped from their carriages, 
and, mounting horses, reached Cherbourg in 
safety. The ladies and children were not mo- 
lested save from the fright which they experi- 
enced. 

An immense crowd thronged the streets of 
Cherbourg, raising revolutionary cries, while 
the tricolor flags seemed to float from every 
window. The port is separated from the town 
by a strong, circular iron railing. The marine 
gate-wnv was guarded by some grenadiers, who 
closed is as soon as the royal carriages, with 
the small accompanying guard, had entered. 



1830.] Charles X. Dethroned. 239 

Embarkation. 

Within this inclosure no tricolor flag was seen, 
no word of reproach was uttered. 

Thousands crowded to the railing, eager- 
ly looking through the bars upon the trage- 
dy which was transpiring. The royal party 
alighted at a small bridge, carpeted with blue 
cloth. The dauphine, who had passed through 
so many scenes of woe, nearly fainted as with 
trembling steps she entered the ship which 
was to bear her again to exile, and an exile 
from which death alone could release her. 
The Duchess de Berri assumed an air of indig- 
nation and defiance, characteristic of her Nea- 
politan blood. The little Duke of Bordeaux, 
now called the Count de Chambord, in behalf 
of whom Charles X. had abdicated, and who 
was consequently now regarded by all the 
court party as their lawful sovereign, was car- 
ried in the arms of M. de Damas, who was very 
apprehensive lest the bullet of some assassin 
might pierce him. The king sufficiently con- 
trolled his feelings to appear calm as ever. 

The deposed monarch and his despairing 
household stood upon the deck of the vessel as 
it was towed by a steamer out of the harbor. 
As the sails were unfurled, and filled with a 
favoring breeze, they sadly watched the reced- 



240 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

A sad farewell. 

ing shores of France. There was no parting 
salute. It was a funereal scene. Even the 
most ardent Loyalists could not raise a cheer. 
A few hours' sail conveyed the silent, melan- 
choly court to England, and thence to Scot- 
land, where an asylum was found in the an- 
cient palace of Holyrood, immortalized as the 
scene of the sufferings of Mar}^ Queen of Scots. 
Thus fell the throne of Charles X. 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 241 

Birth of the Duke of Bordeaux, now called Count de Charabord, 



Chapter YIII. 
The Struggles of Diplomacy. 

UPON the sudden overthrow of the throne 
of Charles X. by a revolution in the 
streets of Paris, four parties appeared, strug- 
gling for the crown. Charles, as he fled with 
his court in terror from France, threw back a 
decree of abdication in favor of his grand- 
son, the Count de Chambord, then entitled the 
Duke de Bordeaux. This child, who still 
lives, was then about ten vears old. The 
birth of this child, whom the Legitimists call 
Henry Y., and whom they regard as the legit- 
imate heir to the ancient throne of the Bour- 
bons, was hailed with rejoicing throughout 
France. 

It is recorded that quite a dramatic scene oc- 
curred at his birth. His grandfather, Charles 
X., hastened to the chamber, and, seizing the 
new-born babe in his arms, exclaimed, with 
delight, "Here is a fine Duke de Bordeaux I 
He is born for us all!" He then gave the 
child a few drops of the wine of Pau, with 

Q 



212 Louis Philippe. [1880. 



Henry V. and the Regency. 



which tradition says that the aged father of 
Jeanne d'Albret anointed the lips of her child, 
Henry IV., before the babe was allowed to 
place his mouth to his mother's breast. 

The heroic mother of the young duke, the 
Duchess de Berri, whose subsequent fate was 
so deplorable, said to the king, the father of 
her departed husband, "Sire, I wish I knew 
the song of Jeanne d'Albret, that every thing 
might be done here as at the birth of Henry 
IV." 

The advocates of the ancient regime^ the 
Legitimist party, many of them illustrious in 
rank and intellect, rallied around the banner 
of young Henry, the Duke of Bordeaux. They 
probably had the sympathies of those Euro- 
pean dynasties which, by force of arms, had 
replaced the Bourbons upon that throne of 
France from which the Revolution of 1789 
had expelled them. In accordance with the 
decree of abdication which Charles X. had is- 
sued, the Legitimists wished the young Duke 
of Bordeaux to be recognized as sovereign, 
with the title of Henry V. ; and the Duke of 
Orleans, Louis Philippe, to be accepted as re- 
gent, during the minority of the child. 

Next came the Republican party, formida* 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 243 

Streugth of the Eepublicans. 

ble in physical strength, in Paris and in other 
cities. The Eepublicans had roused the mass- 
es, filling the streets with a hundred thousand 
armed workmen; they had inspired the con- 
flict, demolished the throne, achieved the rev- 
olution; but they had no leader capable of 
organizing and controlling the tumultuous pop- 
ulace. The moneyed men, remembering the 
Eeign of Terror, were afraid of them. All 
through the rural districts, the peasantry, in- 
fluenced by the priests, could not endure the 
idea of a republic. 

The bankers in Paris, the moneyed class, 
men of large resources and influence, were the 
leaders of the third, or Orleans party, so call- 
ed. These men were opposed to the aristoc- 
racy of rank, but were in favor of the aristoc- 
racy of wealth. They had ample means and 
very able leaders. They wished for a consti- 
tutional monarchy, modelled after the aristo- 
cratic institutions of England. They would 
place upon the throne the Duke of Orleans, a 
Bourbon, one of the richest nobles in Europe. 
He would be the legitimate heir to the throne 
should the young Duke of Bordeaux die. The 
Dake of Orleans, with his vast wealth, would 
be the fitting representative of the moneyed 



244 Louis Philippe. [1880. 

Arguments of the Orleanists. 

class. The Orleanists could very effectually 
appeal to the moderate men of the Legitimist 
and Eepublican parties in favor of a compro- 
mise in the interest of the Duke of Orleans. 
To the first they said : 

"Unless you accept the Duke of Orleans, 
there is danger that the Eepublicans will gain 
the ascendency, and then our time-honored 
monarchy will be overthrown." To the Ee- 
publicans they said : " Unless you consent to 
this compromise, which gives us a constitu- 
tional monarchy, under a citizen hing^ there is 
danger that another coalition of the powers 
of Europe will inundate France, and, after 
years of blood and woe, the old regime of the 
Bourbons will be again forced upon us." 

In speaking to the Eepublicans, they empha- 
sized the declaration that Louis Philippe wo-uld 
be a citizen king. When speaking to the Le- 
gitimists, they laid stress upon the fact that 
the Duke of Orleans would be the legitimate 
sovereign, should the frail child die who alone 
stood between him and the throne. 

There was a fourth party — the Imperial or 
Kapoleonist. It existed then in rather a la- 
tent state, though in a condition to be roused, 
as subsequent events proved, to marvellous 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 245 

Embarrassment of Louis Philippe. 



life by an electric touch. The renown of the 
great emperor filled the land. The memorials 
of his reigii were everywhere. He was en- 
throned in the hearts of the French people, as 
monarch was never enthroned before. But 
the Bourbons had taken especial care to ban- 
ish from France every one who bore his name, 
and to obliterate, as far as possible, every me- 
morial of his wonderful reign. The revolu- 
tion had burst upon Paris with almost the sud- 
denness of the lightning's flash. There was 
no one there who could speak in behalf of the 
descendants of him who had so lately filled 
the world with his renown, and who was still 
enshrined, with almost idolatrous worship, in 
so many hearts. 

From the above it will be perceived that the 
chances were greatly in favor of the Orleans 
party. Louis Philippe was placed in perhaps 
as embarrassing and painful a position as man 
ever occupied. He was fiir advanced in life, 
with property amounting, it is said, to about 
one hundred millions of dollars. Pevolution- 
ary storms had, at one time, driven him into 
the extreme of poverty. He had experienced 
the severest sufferings of persecution and ex- 
ile. Now, in his declining years, happy amidst 



246 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Indecision. 



the splendors of the Palais Eoyal, and in his 
magnificent retreat at Neuilly, he was anxious 
for repose. 

Should he allow himself to be placed at the 
head of the obnoxious, utterly-defeated Legiti- 
mist party, as regent during the minority of 
the Duke of Bordeaux? It was scarcely pos^ 
sible that he could maintain his position. 
Eepublicans, Orleanists, and Imperialists, all 
would combine against him. The army could 
not be relied upon to sustain him. Kuin 
seemed inevitable — not only the confiscation 
of his property, but probably also the loss of 
his head. 

Should he allow himself to be made king 
by the bankers in Paris? He would be an 
usurper ; false to his own principles of legiti- 
macy, to those principles which had brought 
him into sympathy with the allied dynasties 
of Europe in those long and bloody wars by 
which they had forced rejected legitimacy 
back upon France. 

The little Duke of Bordeaux and his grand- 
father, Charles X., were his near blood rela- 
tives. He had received from the royal family 
great favors — the restoration of his vast do- 
mains. He would be morally guilty of the 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 247 

The pressure of eveuts. 

greatest ingratitude in assuming the attitude 
of their antagonist, interposing himself be- 
tween the lawful heir and the crown. Should 
he stand aloof from these agitations, and take 
no part in the movement of affairs, then an- 
archy or a Republic seemed the inevitable re- 
sult. In either case, he, as a rich Bourbon, 
with an amount of wealth which endangered 
the state, would be driven from France and 
his property confiscated. 

But afPairs pressed. Scarcely a moment 
could be allowed for deliberation. The crisis 
demanded prompt and decisive action. The 
embarrassment of the duke is painfully con- 
spicuous in the interviews which ensued. 
Anxiously he paced the floor of his library at 
Neuilly, bewildered and vacillating. 

There was a rich banker at Paris by the 
name of Lafitte. He called a meeting at his 
house, of Guizot, Thiers, and other leading 
journalists. There they decided to unite upon 
the Duke of Orleans, and to combine immedi- 
ately, without a moment's delay, all possible in. 
fluences in Paris, to place the sceptre of power 
in his hands, before the dreaded Republicans 
should have the opportunity to grasp it. It 
was the SOth of July, the last of the three 



248 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Interview between the baron and the banker. 

days' conflict. The thunders of the battle had 
scarcely ceased to echo through the streets of 
the metropolis. 

Baron Grlandev^s, governor of the Tuileries, 
and of course a warm partisan of Charles X., 
who had probably heard a rumor of this meet- 
ing, called upon M. Lafitte, and the following 
conversation is reported as having taken place 
between them : 

"Sir," said the baron to the banker, "you 
have now been master of Paris for twenty-four 
hours. Do you wish to save the monarchy?" 

" Which monarchy?" inquired Lafitte, "the 
monarchy of 1789, or the constitutional mon- 
archy of 1814 ?" 

" The constitutional monarchy," the baron 
replied. 

"To save it," rejoined Lafitte, "only one 
course remains; and that is to crown the Duke 
of Orleans." 

" The Duke of Orleans !" exclaimed the bar- 
on, "what are his titles to the crown? That 
boy, the son of Napoleon, whom Yienna has 
educated, can at least invoke the memory of 
his father's glory. It must be admitted that 
Napoleon has written his annals in characters 
of fire upon the minds of men. But the Duke 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 249 

Interview between the baron and the banker. 

of Orleans — what prestige surrounds him? 
What has he done? How many of the peo- 
ple know his history, or have even heard his 
name?" 

"In the fact of his want of renown," replied 
the banker, "I see a recommendation. Hav- 
ing no influence over the imagination, he will 
be the less able to break away from the re- 
straints of a constitutional monarch. His pri- 
vate life is irreproachable. He has respected 
himself in his wife, and has caused himself to 
be revered and loved by his children." 

"Mere domestic virtues," rejoined M. Glan- 
deves, "are not to be recompensed by a crown. 
Are you ignorant that he is accused of approv- 
ing of the vote of his father for the death of 
Louis XYI. ; that in our dark days he asso- 
ciated himself with projects to exclude forever 
from the throne the legitimate heirs ; that dur- 
ing the Hundred Days he preserved a myste- 
rious inaction ; that, since 1815, while pretend- 
ing to be the humble servant of the court, he 
has been the secret fomenter of all intrigues ? 
Louis XYIII. restored to him his vast estates. 
Charles X., by a personal request to the Cham- 
bers, secured them to him, by legal and irre- 
fragable rights, and conferred upon him the 



250 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Interview between the baron and the banker, 

title of royal highness, which he so long cov- 
eted. How can he now, thus burdened with 
kindnesses from the elder branch of the Bour- 
bons, seize upon their inheritance ?" 

''It is not for the personal interest of the 
duke," replied M. Lafitte, "that we wish to 
place him upon the throne, but for the salva- 
tion of the country. This alone can save us 
from anarchy, which otherwise seems inevita- 
ble. I do not ask whether the situation of the 
Duke of Orleans is painful to his feelings, but 
simply whether his accession to the throne is 
desirable for France. What prince is more 
liberal in his political sentiments, or more 
free from those prejudices which have ruined 
Charles X. ? And where can we find any can- 
didate for the throne who combines so many 
advantages ? And what course can you pro- 
pose preferable to that of placing the crown on 
his head ?" 

"If you believe Charles X. guilty," rejoined 
the baron, " at least you will admit that the 
Duke de Bordeaux is innocent. Let us pre- 
serve the crown for him. He will be trained 
up in good principles. Does Lafayette very 
sincerely desire a Republic?" 

" He would wish for it," Lafitte replied, " if 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 251 

Plan of the Legitimists. 

he were not afraid of too searching a convul- 
sion." 

" Well, then," said the baron, "let a council 
of regency be established. You would take 
part in it with Lafayette." 

M. Lafitte replied, "Yesterday that might 
have been possible; and, had the Duchess de 
Berri — separating her cause from that of the 
old king — presented herself, with her young 
son, holding a tricolor in her hand — " 

"A tricolor !" exclaimed the baron, in aston- 
ishment, interrupting him — "A tricolor! Why, 
it is, in their eyes, the symbol of every crime. 
Eather than adopt it, they would suffer them- 
selves to be brayed in a mortar." 

" Under these circumstances," inquired La- 
fitte, "what is it you have to propose to me?" 

The prompt reply was, " Eespect the divine 
right of the Duke of Bordeaux — proclaim him 
sovereign, as Henry Y. — intrust the regency, 
during his minority, to the Duke of Orleans." 

This was the plan of the Legitimists. Tal- 
leyrand also cherished the same view. The 
Republicans were by no means inclined to 
enthrone another Bourbon in the place of 
Charles X. When M. Thiers and M. Mignet, 
with others from the ofl&ce of the Nationale^ ap- 



252 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Anxiety of Lafayette. 

peared among the crowd distributing printed 
slips of paper eulogizing the Duke of Orleans, 
they were received with hisses. When it was 
announced to the combatants of the Passage 
Dauphin that there was a plot concocting to 
raise the Duke of Orleans to the throne, there 
was one unanimous burst of rage, with the 
simultaneous exclamation, " If that be the case, 
the battle is to be begun again, and we will go 
and cast fresh balls. No more Bourbons : we 
will have none of them." M. Leroux, who had 
witnessed this scene, hurried to the Hotel de 
Ville to warn Lafayette of the danger. He 
assured Lafayette that the Eepublican spirit 
which Lafayette had evoked now menaced 
Paris and France with anarchy, and that the 
attempt to place another Bourbon on the throne 
would be the signal of a new and terrible conflict. 
Lafayette — who was seated in a large arm- 
chair — seemed, for a moment, stunned and 
speechless. A messenger came in to inform 
him that the Duke of Chartres — the eldest son 
of the Duke of Orleans — had been taken cap- 
tive, and that a riotous band was surging 
through the streets shouting, "A prince is 
taken ! Let us go and shoot him !" Almost by 
miracle the young duke escaped death. 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 253 

Danger of anarchy. 

The peril of anarchy was hourly increasing. 
There was not a moment to be lost in organ- 
izing, if possible, some stable government. The 
millions in the rural districts would not accept 
a Eepublic organized by the populace in Paris. 
The men of property, and the friends of order 
generally, thought that their only chance of 
averting confusion and ruin was to rally in sup- 
port of the Orleans dynast}^ Thus the Or- 
leans party rapidly increased among the more 
wealthy and reputable portion of the citizens. 
The leading journals espoused their cause. 
Nearly all the journals, trembling in view of the 
threatening anarchy, earnestly rallied around 
that banner. Beranger, the most popular poet 
in France — notwithstanding his profound ad- 
miration of Napoleon, which was breathed forth 
in so many of his soul-stirring songs — gave the 
Orleanists the aid of his all-powerful pen. 

The following proclamation in favor of the 
Duke of Orleans was issued : 

"Charles X. can never return to Paris; he 
iias shed the blood of the people. 'A Eepub- 
lic would expose its to horrible divisions; it 
would involve us in hostilities with Europe. 
The Duke of Orleans is a prince devoted to 
the cause of the Eevolution. The Duke of 



254 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Orleauist proclamation. 

Orleans has never fought against us. The 
Duke of Orleans was at Jemappes. The Duke 
of Orleans is a citizen king. The Duke of Or- 
leans has carried the tricolor flag under the 
enemy's fire. The Duke of Orleans can alone 
carry it again. We will have no other flag. 
The Duke of Orleans does not declare himself 
He waits for the expression of our wishes. 
Let us proclaim those wishes and he will ac- 
cept the charter, as we have always under- 
stood and desired it. It is from the French peo- 
ple he will hold the crown." 

''This proclamation," says Louis Blanc, "was 
drawn up with great art. It repeated the 
name of the Duke of Orleans again and again, 
in order that this name, little known to the 
people, might nevertheless be deeply imprint- 
ed on its memory. By talking of the tricolor 
flag and Jemappes to a multitude who trou- 
bled themselves little about political forms, it 
engaged, on behalf of the elect of the bour- 
geoisie, that national feeling that had been ex- 
alted to so high a pitch by the victories of the 
Republic and the Empire. Lastly, it invoked 
the sovereignty of the people, the better to de- 
stroy it — an old trick of courage-lacking ambi- 
tion." 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 255 

Activity of the Legitimists. 

The above proclamation was placarded 
throughout Paris, and was simultaneously 
published in the three leading journals, the 
Nationale^ the Courier Frangais^ and the Com- 
merce^ which were severally edited by the dis- 
tinguished journalists, Thiers, Mignet, and La- 
requy. Another renowned editor, M. Carrel, 
was dispatched to Eouen, to gain that impor- 
tant city to the Orleans cause. 

In the mean time, the Legitimists, headed by 
Chateaubriand and Talleyrand, were not idle. 
These men were not merely ambitious parti- 
sans. It can not be doubted that they believed 
that the interests of France would be best pro- 
moted by respecting the rights of the Duke of 
Bordeaux, under the lieutenant-generalship of 
the Duke of Orleans. 

The successful insurrectionists, composed 
mainly of the Eepublican and Democratic par- 
ties in Paris, had their head-quarters at the 
Hotel de Yille. Here they hastily organized 
what they called a Provisional Government. 
General Lafayette presided over their delibera- 
tions. The embarrassment of affairs was such, 
that the illustrious marquis was in a state of 
cruel anxiety. In principle he was a Eepub- 
lican. And yet he could see no possibility of 



256 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Attempts at compromise. 



evolving a stable Eepublic from tlie chaos into 
which the political world was then plunged. 
After much deliberation, the Kepublican lead- 
ers at the Hotel de Yille sent General Du- 
bourg, as a commissioner, to the Orleanists as- 
sembled at M. Lafitte's, to confer respecting a 
compromise and union of parties. But already 
the Orleanists felt so strong that they refused 
even to admit him to their presence. 

The Orleanists were very anxious, from fear 
that the Duke of Orleans might accede to the 
proposition of the Legitimists, and proclaim 
the Duke of Bordeaux king, and himself, in 
accordance with the decree of Charles X., lieu- 
tenant-general of France, and regent during 
the minority of the duke. This would be in 
accordance with the forms of law, and the only 
legal course. Such a step would give the Le- 
gitimists immense vantage-ground, from which 
they could only be driven by another bloody 
conflict. 

To guard against this peril, it was decided 
to send a delegation, consisting of M. Thiers, 
M. Scheffer, and M. Sebastiani, to the rural 
chateau of Louis Philippe, at Neuilly, which 
was but a short distance from Paris, to offer 
to him the crown. Should he refuse it, they 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 257 

Fears of the Orleanists. 

were directed to arrest bim and convey him to 
a place of safety, and hold him in close cus- 
tody. Louis Blanc, in his "Dice Ans de Louis 
Philippe^^^ has given a minute account of this 
interview. It would seem that Louis Philippe, 
in an agony of suspense, though informed of 
the approach of the delegation, was not pre- 
pared to meet them. To avoid the interview, 
he fled to Kancy, leaving his wife and sister 
behind him. 

The Duchess of Orleans received the gentle- 
men. Pale and trembling, she listened to the 
offe'r of a crown to her husband. Then with 
extreme emotion she replied to M. SchefFer, 
the speaker of the party : 

" How could you undertake such a mission ? 
That M. Thiers should have charged himself 
with it, I can understand. He little knew us. 
But that you, who have been admitted to our 
intimacy — who knew us so well — ah ! we can 
never forgive it." 

Just then Louis Philippe's sister, Madame 
Adelaide, followed by Madame de Montjoie, 
entered the room. Fully comprehending the 
object of the mission, and the dangers which 
surrounded them, Madame Adelaide said, 

"Let them make my brother a president, 
R 



258 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Singular interview. 



a commander of the National Guard, any 
thing, so that they do not make him a pro- 
scribed." 

"Madame," responded M.Thiers, *'it is a 
throne which we come to offer him." 

" But what," rejoined the princess, " will Eu- 
rope think? Shall he seat himself on the 
throne from which Louis XYI. descended to 
mount the scaffold? What a panic will it 
strike in all royal houses ! The peace of the 
world will be endangered." 

" These apprehensions, madame," M. Thiers 
replied, " are natural, but they are not well- 
founded. England, full of the recollection of 
the banished Stuarts, will applaud an event of 
which her history furnishes an example and a 
model. As to the absolute monarchies, far 
from reproaching the Duke of Orleans for fix- 
ing on his head a crown floating on the storm, 
they will approve a step which will render his 
elevation a barrier against the unchained pas- 
sions of the multitude. There is something 
great and worth saving in France. And if it 
be too late for legitimacy, it is not for a con- 
stitutional throne. After all, there remains to 
the Duke of Orleans only a choice of danger. 
In the present posture of affairs, to fly from 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 259 

Agitation of the ducal family. 

the possible dangers of royalty is to face a Ee^ 
public and its inevitable tempests." 

These forcible words of the sagacious states- 
man produced a deep impression upon the 
strong and well-balanced mind of Madame Ad- 
elaide. She was fully capable of appreciating 
all their import. She gave virtual assent to 
them by saying, " I am a child of Paris : I am 
willing to intrust myself to the Parisians." 
It was decided to send immediately for the 
duke. A messenger soon reached him, and he 
set out on horseback, accompanied by M. Mon- 
tesquiou, for Paris. Still his irresolution, ti- 
midity, and bewilderment were so great that, 
before reaching the city, his heart misgave him, 
and, turning his horse, he galloped with the ut- 
most speed back to Eancy. Alison, in depict- 
ing these scenes, says, with a severity which 
our readers will probably think that the re- 
corded facts scarcely warrant, 

" He had neither courage enough to seize 
the crown which was offered to him, nor virtue 
enough to refuse it. He would gladly have 
declined the crown if he had been sure of re- 
taining his estates. The most powerful argu- 
ment for accepting it was, that by so doing he 
could save his property " 



260 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



strange crisis of affairs. 



The strange crisis of affairs was such that, 
while the population of France was over thirty 
millions, a few bankers in Paris, without con- 
sulting the voice of the people, were about to 
impose upon them a government and a king ; 
and it must be admitted that the peril of the 
nation was such that many of the purest and 
noblest men approved of these measures. The 
majority of the members of the Chamber of 
Deputies were gained over to this cause; 
and even the members of the House of Peers 
were so overawed by the menacing aspect of 
the excited populace, that they were disposed 
to fall in with the movement. 

The deputies were assembled at the Hotel 
Bourbon, waiting to receive the report of the 
delegation which had been sent to offer the 
crown to Louis Philippe. It is said that there 
was but one man, M. Hyde de Neuviile, who 
occupied the benches reserved for the advo- 
cates of the old royalty. There were proba- 
bly, however, others in favor of the Duke of 
Bordeaux, who absented themselves. While 
thus in session, the rumor came that a body 
of royalist troops from Rouen were marching 
upon Paris, and that their cannon were already 
planted upon the heights of Montmartre, which 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 261 

Appalling rumor. 

commanded the city. In the midst of the con- 
sternation which this communication created, 
the deputies returned from Neuilly, with a re- 
port of their favorable reception by the family 
of Louis Philippe. 

Immediately, though with some dissenting 
voices, the following resolution was adopted, 
and transmitted to the Duke of Orleans: 

" The deputies in Paris deem it essential to 
implore his royal highness the Duke of Or- 
leans to repair immediately to Paris, to exer- 
cise the functions of lieutenant-general of the 
kingdom, and also to resume, in accordance 
with the universal wish, the tricolor flag." 

Meanwhile the peers had met in their hall, 
in the palace of the Luxembourg. Chateau- 
briand was then in the plenitude of his re- 
nown as a writer, an orator, a statesman. 
Crowds of young men, in admiration of his 
genius, were ready enthusiastically to follow 
his leading. This distinguished man fully re- 
alized the true state of affairs — the difficulties 
involved in whatever course they should at- 
tempt to pursue. For some time he sat apart, 
silent and melancholy, apparently in gloomy 
thought. Suddenly he rose, and, in deliberate, 
solemn tones, said : 



262 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

The ultra Democrats. 

"Let US protest in favor of the ancient mon- 
archy. If needs be, let us leave Paris. But 
wherever we may be driven, let us save the 
king, and surrender ourselves to the trust of 
a courageous fidelity. If the question come 
to the salvation of legitimacy, give me a 
pen and two months, and I will restore the 
throne." 

Scarcely had he concluded these bold, proud 
words, when a delegation presented itself from 
the Chamber of Deputies, soliciting the co-op- 
eration of the peers in placing the crown upon 
the brow of the Duke of Orleans. It was soon 
manifest that but few of the peers were pre- 
pared to surrender themselves to martyrdom 
by following the courageous but desperate 
councils of Chateaubriand. 

The ultra democratic party, dissatisfied with 
the moderate tone assumed by Lafayette and 
his associates at the Hotel de Yille, formed a 
new organization at a hall in the Eue St. Ho- 
nore. They were bold, determined men, ready 
to adopt the most audacious resolutions, and to 
shed their blood like water, in street fights, to 
maintain them. They were numerous, and with 
nervous gripe held the arms they had seized; 
but they had no commander. There was not 



1830.] Stkuggles of Diplomacy. 263 

The demand for a plebiscite. 

a man in their ranks who could secure the sup>. 
port of a respectable party throughout France^ 
They had no pecuniary resources — they con- 
sisted merely of a tumultuous band of success- 
ful insurrectionists, with no one of sufficient 
character and prominence upon whom even 
they could unite to recognize as their leader. 
The eloquent and universally popular Beran- 
ger, advocating in all his glowing verse the 
rights of the people, with other agents of the 
Orleans cause, repaired to this democratic gath- 
ering, to win them over, if possible, to their 
side. Angrily the Democrats rejected all such 
propositions. A ferocious debate ensued, which 
was terminated by a pistol-shot from an enraged 
opponent, which wounded an Orleanist orator 
severely in the cheek. It was no longer safe, 
in that presence, to urge the claims of Louis 
Philippe. His advocates, as speedily as possi- 
ble, left the hall. 

The Democrats, as this wing of the Eepub- 
lican party may be called, who had broken 
from their more moderate brethren, who were 
assembled, under the presidency of Lafayette, 
at the Hotel de Yille, thus left to themselves, 
sent a deputation to that body, with the fol- 
lowing well-expressed remonstrance against or- 



264 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Tumultuous scenes. 



ganizing a government without consulting the 
voice of the French, people : 

" The people yesterday reconquered their 
rights at the expense of their blood. The 
most precious of their rights is that of choosing 
their form of government. Till this is done, 
no proclamation should be issued announcing 
any form of government as adopted. A pro- 
visional representation of the nation exists: 
let it continue till the wishes of the majority 
of Frenchmen are known." 

The spacious Place de Greve, in front of the 
Hotel de Ville, was crowded with an excited, 
surging, tumultuous mass, anxiously awaiting 
the issues of each passing hour. The demo- 
ocratic delegation elbowed their way through 
the crowd, and were courteously received by 
Lafayette, in behalf of the Provisional Govern- 
ment. As Lafayette was addressing them, a 
gentleman entered, M. Sussy, a commissioner 
from the fugitive king, Charles X., with a proc- 
lamation which Charles had issued, hoping to 
conciliate the enraged people by revoking the 
ordinances which had roused them to insurrec- 
tion, dismissing the obnoxious ministers who 
had recommended those ordinances, and ap- 
pointing a new cabinet of more popular men. 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 265 

Kesolutious passed by the Republicans. 

It was too late for compromise. The same 
proclamation had been sent to the deputies, but 
they refused to receive it. Upon the announce- 
ment of the mission of M. Sussy, the indignant 
cry arose from the Eepublicans, "ISTo! no! 
away with him : we will have nothing more to 
do with the Bourbons." So great was the fury 
excited that it was with difficulty that a brawny 
Eepublican, M. Bastide, was prevented from 
throwing M. Sussy out of the window. By the 
interposition of Lafayette, he was withdrawn, 
in the midst of a frightful tumult, to another 
room. Under the influence of the hostile feel- 
ings thus aroused, a series of resolutions were 
passed, declaring that France would have no 
more of royalty — that the representatives of 
the people alone should make the laws, to be 
executed only by a temporary president. 

It will be seen that these resolutions were in 
direct opposition to the views of those who 
wished to re-erect the monarchy and to place 
Louis Philippe upon the throne. But these 
resolutions were passionately adopted, by the 
most radical portion of the party, in the midst 
of a scene of the wildest tumult. They were 
by no means unanimously accepted. The more 
moderate of the Eepublicans, with Lafayette at 



266 Louis Philippe. [1830, 

Arrogance of the Polytechnic pupils. 

their head, in view of the agitation hourly aug- 
menting in the streets, in view of the insupera- 
ble difficulties, obvious to every well-inform- 
ed man, of establishing a stable Eepublic in a 
realm where a large majority of the population 
were opposed to a Eepublic, and trembling in 
view of the anarchy with which all France 
was menaced, and conscious that a Eepublic 
would excite the hostility of every surrounding 
throne — were already strongly inclined to effect 
a union with the Orleans party, under a consti- 
tutional monarchy. 

In various parts of the city there were ex- 
cited gatherings, adopting all sorts of revolu- 
tionary resolutions, and sending delegations to 
the Hotel de Yille with instructions, petitions, 
and threats. The students of the Polytechnic 
School — who had distinguished themselves in 
the bloodiest scenes of the street-fight with the 
troops of Charles X. — sent a committee to the 
Hotel de Yille with a military order^ to which 
they demanded an official signature. The ap- 
propriate officer, M. Lobau, refused to sign it. 
"You recoil, do you?" said the determined 
young man who presented the ordinance. 
" Nothing is so dangerous, in revolutions, as to 
recoil : I will order you to be shot!" 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 267 

Increasing anxiety and peril. 

" To be shot P' was the indignant reply. 
"Shoot a member of the Provisional Govern- 
ment!" * 

The young man drew him to the window, 
pointed to a well-armed band of a hundred 
men, who had fought desperately the day be- 
fore: "There," said he, "are men who would 
shoot God Almighty, were I to order them to 
do so." The order was signed in silence. 

Such occurrences gave new impulse to the 
inclinations of Lafayette and the more moder- 
ate of the Kepublican party towards the Or- 
leanists, who were deliberating in the salons of 
M. Lafitte. Charles X., who had fled from St. 
Cloud with his family and with some of the most 
devoted of his followers, while these scenes 
were transpiring, was still in France, at but a 
few leagues from Paris, at the head of twelve 
thousand veteran troops. Should the Duke of 
Orleans escape and join him, and rally the rural 
portion of the people in defense of Legitimacy, 
and in support of the Duke of Bordeaux, re- 
sults might ensue appalling to the boldest im- 
agination. As hour after hour passed away, 
and the duke did not appear in Paris, the anx- 
iety in the crowded salons of M. Lafitte was ter- 
rible.' Orleanists and Eepublicans were alike 



268 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



The panic. 



imperilled. The re-establishment of the old 
regime would inevitably consign the leaders 
t)f both these parties, as traitors, to the scaf- 
fold. Democratic cries were resounding, more 
and more loudly, through the streets. Pow- 
er was fast passing into the hands of the mob. 
Should the Duke of Orleans fail his party, 
there was no one else around whom they could 
rally, and their disastrous defeat was inev- 
itable. 

The hours were fast darkening into despair. 
Messengers were anxiously sent to the Pa- 
lais Royal, the sumptuous city residence of the 
duke, to ascertain if he had arrived. No ti- 
dings could be heard from him. The domestics 
seemed to be packing up the valuables in prep- 
aration for removal. The utter failure of Be- 
ranger and his associates to gain the co-opera- 
tion of the Democrats was reported. The de- 
cisive resolution adopted at the Hotel de Yille 
was known. All seemed lost. There was noth- 
ing before the eye but a frightful vision of an- 
archy and bloodshed. A general panic seized 
all those assembled in the apartments of Lafitte, 
and there was a sudden dispersion. It was 
near midnight ; but three persons were left — 
Lafitte, Adolphe Thibodeaux, and Benjamin 



1830.] Stkuggles of Diplomacy. 269 

Two imperialists. 



Constant. A few moments of anxious conver- 
sation ensued. 

" What will become of us to-morrow ?" sadly 
inquired Lafitte. 

" We shall all be hanged," replied Benjamin 
Constant, in the calm aspect of despair. 

In this crisis of affairs, matters threatened to 
become still more involved by two energetic 
young men, M. Ladvocat and M. Dumoulin, 
who proposed to bring forward the claims of 
the Empire. The name of Napoleon then pro- 
nounced in the streets, and the unfurling of the 
eagle - crowned banner under any recognized 
representative of his renown, would, perhaps, 
have called a party into being which would 
instantly have overridden all others. This 
peril was adroitly averted by the sagacity of 
M. Thiers and M. Mignet. By their powerful 
persuasion they induced M. Ladvocat to desist 
from the attempt. The other young man, who 
was found inflexible in his resolve, they lured 
into a room in the Hotel de Yille, where they 
caused him to be arrested and imprisoned. 

In the following^ terms Louis Blanc describes 
this singular event: 

" While every one was seeking to realize his 
wishes, a few voices only were heard uttering 



270 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Testimony of Louis Blanc. 



the name of the emperor in a city that had so 
long echoed to that sound. Two men without 
influence, military reputation, or celebrity of 
any kind, MM. Ladvocat and Dumoulin, con- 
ceived, for a while, the idea of proclaiming 
the Empire. M. Thiers easily persuaded one 
of them that fortune gives herself to him who 
hastens to seize her. The other appeared, 
dressed as an orderly-officer, in the great hall 
of the Hotel de Yille. But, being politely re- 
quested by M. Carbonel to pass into an adjoin- 
ing room, he was there locked up and kept 
prisoner. 

" This is one of those curiosities of history the 
key of which is found in the grovelling nature 
of most human ambition. The son of Napo- 
leon was far away. For those who were actu- 
ated by vulgar hopes, to wait was to run the 
risk of losing those first favors which are al- 
ways easiest to obtain from a government that 
has need to win forgiveness for its accession. 
Nevertheless, Napoleon's memory lived in the 
hearts of the people. But what was requisite 
to the crowning of the immortal victim of Wa- 
terloo in the first-born of his race? — That an 
old general should appear in the streets, draw 
his sword, and shout, Vive Napoleon II! 



1830..] Struggles of Diplomacy. 271 

The Empire. 

"But no; General Gourgaud alone made 
some tentative efforts. Napoleon, besides, had 
pigmied all minds round his own. The impe- 
rial regime had kindled in the plebeians he had 
abruptly ennobled a burning thirst for place 
and distinction. The Orleanist party recruit- 
ed itself among all those whose promptitude 
to revive the Empire needed, perhaps, but one 
flash of hardihood, a leader, and a cry. Of all 
the generals whose fortunes were of imperial 
growth, Subervic alone gave his voice for a 
Kepublic in M. Lafitte's saloons — at least he 
was the only one that was remarked. Thus 
all was over as regards Napoleon. And some 
little time after this, a young colonel, in the 
service of Austria, died beyond the Rhine — 
the frail representative of a dynasty whose last 
breath passed away with him."* 

When Louis Blanc penned these lines he 
little supposed that but a few years would pass 
away ere the almost unanimous voice of the 
French people would call Napoleon III. to the 
throne of France, and that under his energetic 
sway France would enjoy for twenty years 
prosperity at home and influence abroad which 

* "The History of Ten Years," by Louis Blanc, vol. i., 
p. 187. 



272 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



The mob at Neuilly. 



almost eclipsed the splendors of the first Em- 
pi re. 

In the mean time an agitated crowd poured 
out through the gates of Paris, and, invading 
Neuilly, surrounded the chateau, intending to 
seize the Duke of Orleans and carry him into 
the city. But he, as we have mentioned, had 
retired to Rancy. The leaders of this multi- 
tude, professing to be a deputation from the 
Chamber of Deputies, demanded to see the 
duchess, and informed her that they should 
take her and her children as hostages to the 
city, and there keep them until the duke should 
appear in Paris. The duchess, terrified in view 
of the peril to which she and her children would 
be exposed in the hands of an ungovernable 
mob, wrote to her husband entreating him to 
return immediately. 

Thus influenced, the duke resolved to repair 
to Paris. The streets were thronged with an 
excited mob, who would surely assassinate 
him should he be recognized. The peril of 
his family overcame his constitutional timid- 
ity. In disguise, accompanied by three per- 
sons only, who were also disguised, this reluc- 
tant candidate for one of the most brilliant of 
earthly crowns, a little before midnight, set out 



1830.] Strugglp:s of Diplomacy. 273 

The duke visits Paris. 

on foot from his rural retreat; and, entering 
Paris, traversed the thronged streets, with Ee- 
publican cries resounding everywhere about 
him. In several instances the mob, little aware 
whom they were assailing, compelled him to 
respond to the cry. Upon reaching his sump- 
tuous palace, sometime after midnight, he threw 
himself, in utter exhaustion, upon a couch, and 
sent the welcome announcement to his friends 
of his arrival. M. de Montmart, one of the 
most prominent of the Orleans party, immedi- 
ately called. He found the duke in a state of 
extreme agitation, bathed in sweat, undressed, 
and covered only with a light spread. 

The duke gave vehement utterance to his 
perplexities and alarm. He declared his devo- 
tion to the principles of Legitimacy, and his 
inalienable attachment to his friends and rela- 
tives of the elder branch of the Bourbon fam- 
ily. He remonstrated against the cruelty of 
placing him in the false position of their antag- 
onist, saying, " I would rather die than accept 
the crown." Seizing a pen, he wrote a letter to 
Charles X., full of protestations of loyalty and 
homage. M. de Montmart concealed this epis- 
tle in the folds of his cravat, and it was con= 
veyed to the fugitive king. 

S 



274 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Scene in the Palais Royal. 



This epistle was probably intended only to 
be a forcible expression of the extreme reluc- 
tance with which Louis Philippe yielded to 
those influences which seemed morally to com- 
pel him to accept the crown. Charles X. was 
cruelly deceived by the letter. He interpret- 
ed it to signify that the Duke of Orleans would 
remain firm in his allegiance to the dynasty 
which had been driven by successful insurrec- 
tion from Paris. 

At an early hour the next morning, a del- 
egation from the Chamber of Deputies, with 
Greneral Sebastiani at its head, arrived at the 
Palais Eoyal. The agitations of the hour 
were such that, without waiting for an an- 
nouncement, they broke into the presence of 
the duke with the entreaty that he would ac- 
cept from them the lieutenant-generalcy of 
the kingdom, which was merely the stepping- 
stone to the throne. The duke was still very 
undecided, or, to save appearances, feigned to 
be so. The deputies assured him that the cri- 
sis was so imperious, that not only the des- 
tinies of France, but also his own life, were 
probably dependent upon his accepting the 
appointment. The duke implored a few more 
moments for private reflection, and retired to 



1830.] Struggles of Diplomacy. 277 

Advice of Talleyrand. 

his cabinet with General Sebastiani, who was 
then hurriedly dispatched to the hotel of M. 
Talleyrand in the Rue St. Florentin. Talley- 
rand had been one of the firmest supporters 
of Legitimacy. Louis Philippe sought his 
advice. The wily statesman, who had lived 
through so many revolutions, had not yet left 
his bed-chamber, and was dressing. He, how- 
ever, promptly returned the sealed answer, 
"Let him accept." 

The duke hesitated no longer. Returning 
to the Deputies, he announced his decision. 
The most vigorous action was now required. 
A proclamation to the inhabitants of Paris 
was immediately drawn up in the name of 
Louis Philippe, and which was unanimously 
agreed to by the delegation, announcing that, 
in obedience to the wishes of the Deputies, 
he had assumed the office of lieutenant-general 
of France. At the same time, the illustrious 
writer, M. Guizot, was intrusted with the duty 
of preparing a more full exposition of the prin- 
ciples of the Orleanist party, which was to be 
signed by ninety - one of the Deputies. The 
proclamation issued by Louis Philippe, and 
which was simply expanded in the longer one 
drawn up by M. Guizot, was as follows: 



278 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Proclamation of Louis Philippe. 



"Inhabitants of Paris, — The Deputies, 
at this moment assembled in Paris, have ex- 
pressed their desire that I should betake my- 
self to this capital to exercise there the func- 
tions of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. I 
have not hesitated to come and partake of 
your dangers, to place myself in the midst of 
this heroic population, and use all my endeav- 
ors to preserve yon from civil war and an- 
archy. On entering the city of Paris, I wore 
with pride those glorious colors you have re- 
sumed, and which I had myself long carried. 

"The Chambers are about to assemble. 
They will consult on the means of securing 
the reign of the laws and the maintenance of 
the rights of the nation. A charter shall be 
henceforth a true thin 2:. 

" Louis Philippe D'Oeleans." 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Thkone. 279 

The duke at the Hotel de Ville. 



Chapter IX. 
Louis Philippe's Throne. 

BY the movement chronicled in the previ- 
ous chapter, the Duke of Orleans became 
virtually dictator. Could his dictatorship be 
maintained, it was of course a death-blow to 
all other parties. The Republican party, weak 
as it was if we consider the whole of France, 
was strong in the streets of Paris. It was a 
matter of great moment to try to conciliate 
the leaders of that party. It was soon evi- 
dent that this would be no easy matter. The 
proclamation of the duke was very angrily re- 
ceived in the streets. Loud mutterings were 
heard. Those who were distributing the proc- 
lamation were fiercely assailed, and one of the 
agents narrowly escaped with his life. 

At length the bold resolve was adopted for 
the Duke of Orleans to go in person to the 
Hotel de Yille, accompanied by an escort of 
Deputies. A throng of Orleanists surrounded 
the Palais Royal and cheered the duke as he 
came out. As the procession advanced, insult- 



280 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Discordant cries. 

ing shouts began to assail their ears. The 
duke was on horseback. The Place de Greve 
was thronged with Eepublicans. Angry out- 
cries greeted him. "He is a Bourbon," some 
shouted; "away with him! We will have 
nothing to do with him." 

Benjamin Constant and Beranger mingled 
with the crowd, doing every thing in their 
power to appease and calm it. It was feared, 
every moment, that some pistol-shot would 
strike the duke from his horse. His counte- 
nance was pale and care-worn ; but there was 
no visible perturbation. Having with diffi- 
culty forced his way through the angry crowd, 
Louis Philippe alighted from his horse and as- 
cended the stairs. Lafayette, who was already 
in heart in sympathy with the Orleanist move- 
ment, came forth courteously to meet him, and 
conducted him to the great hall of the palace. 
There was here a very excited interview, the 
more passionate of the Orleanists and of the 
Eepublicans coming very near to blows. But 
Lafayette and the most illustrious men of the 
liberal party, seeing no other possible way of 
rescuing France from anarchy, now openly es- 
poused the cause of Louis Philippe. 

Lafayette took the Duke of Orleans by t^^*^ 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Theone. 281 

Decisive action of Lafayette. 



hand, and led him out upon a balcony, where 
they were in view of the vast multitude 
swarming in the vacant space below. The 
devotion of the marquis to popular rights was 
universally known. He could not, in that tu- 
multuous hour, make his voice heard. But in 
the use of action, more expressive than words, 
he threw his arms around the neck of the duke 
in an affectionate embrace. The best part of 
the multitude accepted this as the indorsement 
of his fitness for the trust, by one in whom 
they could confide. It was on this occasion 
that the following incident occurred : 

"You know," said Lafayette to Louis Phi- 
lippe, "that I am a Kepublican, and that I re- 
gard the Constitution of the United States as 
the most perfect that has ever existed." 

" I think as you do," Louis Philippe replied. 
"It is impossible to have passed two years in 
the United States, as I have done, and not be 
of that opinion. But do you think that in the 
present state of France a republican govern- 
ment can be adopted ?" 

" No," said Lafayette ; " that which is neces- 
sary for France now is a throne, surrounded 
by republican institutions. All must be re- 
publican." 



282 Louis Philippe [1830. 



The social contract. 



"That is precisely my opinion," rejoined 
Louis Philippe. 

After this scene, the duke, immensely 
strengthened in his position, returned to the 
Palais Royal, accompanied by a decided in- 
crease of acclamations. Still there were many 
murmurs. The people could not forget that 
he was by birth an aristocrat and a Bourbon'; 
that he had taken no part, either by word or 
deed, in the conflict for the overthrow of the 
despotic throne ; that, concealed in the recesses 
of his palace at Neuilly, he had not shown his 
face in Paris until the conflict in which they 
were shedding their blood was terminated, and 
that then he had come merely to assume a 
crown. 

Immediately after the withdrawal of Louis 
Philippe from the Hotel de Yille, Lafayette 
and his friends drew up a programme, or social 
contract, in which they endeavored to recon- 
cile republican institutions with the forms of a 
monarchy. Lafayette himself took this con- 
tract to the Palais Eoyal, and submitted it to 
the duke. He gave it apparently his candid 
consent. There were, however, Legitimists as 
well as Republicans who had no faith in this 
union. The Abbe Grregoire is reported to 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Throne. 283 

Singular statement. 



have exclaimed in disgust, "Good God, are we 
then to have both a republic and a king?" 

There were yet many dangers to be encoun- 
tered. The word king had not been distinct- 
ly spoken. And still the supreme power was 
placed in the hands of Louis Philippe, the 
Duke of Orleans. It was necessary to the 
more full organization of the government that 
he should be recognized as a sovereign. But 
it was no easy matter to reconcile the populace 
of Paris to the idea of placing a Bourbon at 
the head of the new government. 

" To obviate the unfavorable impression 
thus produced," writes Alison, " the Orleans 
committee prepared and placarded all over 
Paris a proclamation not a little surprising, 
considering that M. Mignet and M. Thiers were 
members of it — ' The Duhe of Orleans is not a 
Bourbon; lie is a Vcdois.^ A remarkable asser- 
tion to be made, by historians, of a lineal de- 
scendant of Henry IV., and of the brother of 
Louis XIY." 

The leading journals had all been won over 
to the side of the Orleans party. We would 
not intimate that any unworthy means had 
been employed to secure their support. Such 
men as Thiers, Guizot, Mignet, are above sus- 



284 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Support of the journals. 



picion. They doubtless felt, as did Lafayette, 
that the attempt to establish a Eepublic would 
result only in anarchy; that it would be impos- 
sible to maintain a Eepublic in a realm where 
the large majority of the people were mon- 
archists. Still, it is obvious that the wealth 
of a party composed of nearly all the monej^ed 
men in the kingdom, and whose leader was the 
richest noble in France, if not in Europe, was 
amply sufficient to present very persuasive in- 
fluences to secure the support of any journal- 
ist who might be wavering. The result was, 
that nearly all the periodicals of the kingdom 
opened their broadsides against a Eepublic. 
They denounced that form of government as 
the sure precursor of anarchy, pillage, and a 
reign of terror, and as certain to embroil 
France in another war with combined Europe. 
It was, indeed, greatly to be feared that the 
foreign dynasties, who would not allow France 
to lay aside the Bourbons and place Napoleon 
upon the throne, would resist, through the 
same devotion to the principles of legitimacy, 
the " usurpation " of Louis Philippe. To con- 
ciliate them it was necessary for the Duke of 
Orleans to represent that he was in sympathy 
with the hereditary thrones, co-operating with 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Throne. 285 



Endeavors to reconcile the democracy. 



them in their advocacy of exclusive privilege, 
and that he was, providentially, a barrier to 
whom they owed a debt of gratitude, arresting 
France from rushing over to democracy. But 
the open avowal of these opinions would rouse 
the liberal party to desperation against him. 

Notwithstanding all these efforts of the jour- 
nalists to discredit republicanism in every pos- 
sible way, there still remained a democratic 
party in Paris among the populace, led by 
very bold, impetuous, and determined men. 
These leaders had great influence with a por- 
tion of the people who could be easily roused 
to insurrection, which, however impotent, might 
still cause the streets of Paris to run red with 
blood. It was deemed a matter of much im- 
portance to win over these men. A meeting 
was arranged between them and the Duke 
of Orleans. M. Boinvilliers, a man who un- 
derstood himself, and who was entirely unawed 
in the presence of dignitaries, was the spokes- 
man of the delegation. His scrutinizing inter- 
rogatories embarrassed the duke exceedingly. 

" To-morrow," said M. Boinvilliers, "you are 
to be king. What are your ideas upon the 
treaties of 1815?" 

By the treaties which iu that year the con* 



286 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



The treaties of 1S15. 



querors of Waterloo formed at Vienna, Europe 
was partitioned out among the dynasties, so as 
to bind the people hand and foot, and render 
any future uprising in behalf of liberty almost 
impossible. The River Rhine, since the days 
of C^sar, had been regarded as the natural 
boundary between France and Germany. 
Large provinces on the French banks of the 
Rhine were wrested from France and placed 
in the hands of Prussia, ttiat, in case the French 
people should again endeavor to overthrow 
the aristocratic institutions of feudal despotism, 
the allied dynasties might have an unobstruct- 
ed march open before them into the heart of 
France. 

Though the Bourbons, replaced by foreign 
bayonets, had entered into this arrangement 
for their own protection against democracy, 
still, the discontent of the French people, in 
view of the degradation, was so great that 
even Charles X was conspiring to regain the 
lost boundary. According to the testimony 
of his minister, Yiscount Chateaubriand, he 
was entering into a secret treaty with Russia 
to aid the czar in his designs upon Turkey, 
and, in return, Russia was to aid France in re- 
gaining her lost Rhenish provinces. In refer* 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Throne. 287 

The duke iuteiviewed. 

ence to these treaties of 1815 even one of the 
British quarterlies has said : 

" Though the most desperate efforts have 
been made by the English diplomatists to em- 
balm them as monuments of political wisdom, 
they should be got under ground with all pos- 
sible dispatch, for no compacts so worthless, so 
wicked, so utterly subversive of the rights of 
humanity, are to be found in the annals of na- 
tions." 

When the question was asked of Louis Phi- 
lippe, " What are your ideas upon the trea- 
ties of 1815?" his embarrassment was great. 
Should he say he approved of those treaties, 
all France would raise a cry of indignation. 
Should he say that he was prepared to assail 
them, all the surrounding dynasties would 
combine in hostility to his reign. 

The reply of the duke was adroit. "I am 
no partisan to the treaties of 1815. But we 
must avoid irritating foreign powers." 

The next question was still more embarrass- 
ing, for it was to be answered not only in the 
ears of this democratic delegation, but in the 
hearing of all aristocratic Europe eagerly list- 
ening. "What are your opinions upon the 
subject of an hereditary peerage?" Still the 



288 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



luterestino: statement ot Chateaubriand. 



duke manifested no little skill in meeting it. 
He replied : 

"In hereditary aristocracy is the best basis 
of society. But if the hereditary peerage can 
not maintain itself, I certainly shall not endow 
it. I was once a Eepublican ; but I am con- 
vinced that a Kepublic is inapplicable to such 
a country as France." 

The interview was unsatisfactory to the 
delegation, and the members retired in dis- 
gust."^ 

Chateaubriand, with all the ardor of his po- 
etic and religious instincts, was a Legitimist. 
As the representative of the old Bourbon re- 
gime, he sought an audience with the duke, 
hoping to induce him to decline the crown, 
and to act in the interests of the expelled dy- 
nasty. In his "Memoires d'Outre Tombe," 
this illustrious man has given a minute ac- 
count of the conversation which took place. 
Chateaubriand was received by the Duchess 
of Orleans, who very cordially invited him to 
take a seat near her. Rather abruptly she 
3ommenced the conversation by saying, 

"Ah, Monsieur de Chateaubriand, we are 
very unhappy. If all parties could unite, we 

♦Louis Blanc, i., 35P 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Throne. 289 

The conversation. 

might yet be saved. What do you think 
about it?" ' 

" Madame," Chateaubriand replied, " noth- 
ing is so easy. Charles X. and Monsieur the 
Dauphin have abdicated. Henry, the Duke of 
Bordeaux, is now king. The Duke of Orleans 
is lieutenant-general of the realm. Let him be 
regent during the minority of Henry V., and 
all is right." 

"But, Monsieur de Chateaubriand," said the 
duchess, "the people are very much agitated. 
We shall fall into anarchy." 

" Madame," replied Chateaubriand, " may I 
venture to inquire of you what is the intention 
of the Duke of Orleans? Will he accept the 
crown, if it is offered to him ?" 

The duchess, after a moment's hesitation, 
added, without replying to the question, " Ee- 
flect. Monsieur de Chateaubriand, upon the 
evils to which we are exposed. It is neces- 
sary that all good men should unite in the en- 
deavor to save us from a Republic. You could 
render great service as ambassador to Rome, 
or in the ministry here, should you not wish 
to leave Paris." 

" Madame is not ignorant," Chateaubriand 
rejoined, " of my devotion to the young king 

T 



290 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Counsel of Chateaubriand. 

and to his mother. Your royal highness could 
not wish that I should give the lie to my 
whole life" — que je dementisse toute ma vie. 

" Monsieur de Chateaubriand," replied the 
duchess, "you do not know my niece. She is 
so frivolous. Poor Caroline ! But I will send 
for the Duke of Orleans. He can persuade 
you better than I can." 

The duke soon entered, in dishevelled dress, 
and with a countenance expressive of great 
anxiety and fatigue. After a few words^ 
which Chateaubriand rather contemptuously 
records as an " idyl upon the pleasures of 
country life," Chateaubriand repeated what he 
had said to the duchess. 

The duke exclaimed, " That is just what I 
should like. Nothing would please me better 
than to be the tutor and guardian of that 
childo I think just as you do, M. Chateau- 
briand. To take the Duke of Bordeaux 
would certainly be the best thing that could 
be done. I fear only that events are stronger 
than we." 

'^ Stronger than we, my lord !" rejoined M. 
Chateaubriand. "Are you not esteemed by all 
the powers? Let us go and join Henry Y. 
Call around you, outside the walls of Paris, the 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Thkojse.291 

Termiuation of the interview. 

Chambers and the army. At the first tidings 
of your departure all this effervescence will 
cease, and every one will seek shelter under 
your protection and enlightened power." 

The duke was much embarrassed. He 
seemed to avoid looking Chateaubriand in the 
face. With averted eyes he said, ''The thing 
is more difficult than you imagine. It can not 
be accomplished. You do not know what 
peril we are in. A furious band can launch 
against the Chambers with the most frightful 
excesses; and we have no means of defense. 
Be assured that it is I alone who now hold 
back this menacing crowd. If the Royalist 
party be not massacred, it will owe its life 
solely to my efforts." 

M. de Chateaubriand responded in brave 
words, which perhaps the occasion warranted : 

" My lord, I have seen some massacres. 
Those who have passed through the Eevolu- 
tion are inured to war. The gray mustaches 
are not terrified by objects which frighten the 
conscripts." 

These not very courteous remarks, which 
implied that, though the duke might be a cow- 
ard, the viscount was not, terminated the in- 
terview. 



292 Louis Philippe. [1880. 

Remoustrauce of M. Arairo. 



Chateaubriand, then the most eiistinguisli- 
ed writer and ilkistrious orator in France, bad 
prepared an " accusing and terrible speech," 
to be addressed to the Chamber of Peers, 
pleading the cause of the vanquished dynasty, 
and protesting against the Orleans usurpation. 

" This news,-' writes Louis Blanc, " had 
reached the Palais Royal, which it threw into 
the utmost uneasiness. Such a danger was to 
be averted at any cost. Madame Adelaide 
saw M. Arao-o, and told him that he would 
entitle himself to unbounded gratitude if he 
would see M. de Chateaubriand and entreat 
him to forego his intended speech ; upon 
wliich condition he should be assured of hav- 
ing his place in the administration. 

" M. Arago called upon the illustrious poet 
and submitted to him that France had just 
been shaken to its inmost centre ; that it was 
important to avoid exposing it to the risk of 
too sudden reactions ; that the Duke of Or- 
leans would have it in his power, on becoming 
king, to do much for public liberty ; and that 
it became a n^an like Viscount de Chateau* 
briand to abstain from making himself the 
mouth-piece of the agitators at the commence- 
ment of a reign. 



1830.] Louis PiiiLirPK's Throne. 293 

. . ■ . SL___ 

Flattering offers to Chateaubriand. 

" He ended by telling him that a better 
means remained to him to serve his country 
with advantage, and that there would be no 
hesitation to bestow a portefeuille upon him — 
that of public instruction, for example. Cha- 
teaubriand shook his head suddenly, and re- 
plied that, of all he had just heard, that which 
most touched his heart was the consideration 
of what was due to the interests of France in 
its deeply disturbed condition ; that he expect- 
ed nothing, and would accept nothing upon the 
ruin of his hopes ; but, since his speech might 
sow the seeds of rancor in his native land, he 
would soften down its tenor. This singular 
negotiation took place on the eve of the 7th of 
August." 

The next evening, the 8th of August, there 
was a meeting of the Chamber of Peers. In 
the eloquent speech which M. Chateaubriand 
made in advocacy of the old regime, he said: 

"A king named by the Chambers, or elect- 
ed by the people, will ever be a novelty in 
France. I suppose they wish liberty — above 
all, the liberty of the press, by which and for 
which they have obtained so astonishing a vic- 
tory. Well, every new monarchy, sooner or 
later, will be obliged to restrain that liberty. 



294 Louis Philippe [1830. 

— • ■ _ — , 

Speech of Viscount Chateaubriand. 

Was Kapoleon himself able to admit it? The 
liberty of the press can not live in safety but 
under a government which has^struck its roots 
deep into the hearts of men. 

"A Republic is still more impracticable. In 
the existing state of our morals, and in our re- 
lations with the adjoining states, such a gov- 
ernment is out of the question. The first dif- 
ficulty would be to bring the French to any 
unanimous opinion upon the subject. What 
right have the people of Paris to impose a 
government, by their vote, on the people of 
Marseilles? What right have they to con- 
strain any other town to receive the rulers 
which they have chosen, or the form of gov- 
ernment which they have adopted ? Shall we 
have one Eepublic, or twenty Republics? a 
federal union, or a commonwealth one and in- 
divisible ? 

" Charles X. and his son are dethroned, or 
have abdicated, as you have heard. But the 
throne is not thereby vacant. After them a 
child is called to the succession; and who will 
venture to condemn his innocence? I know 
that in removing that child it is said you es- 
tablish the sovereignty of the people. Yain 
illusion ! which proves that in the march of 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Throne. 295 

Resolve passed by the Deputies. 

intellect our old democrats have not made 
greater advances than the partisans of royalty. 
It were easy to show that men may be as free 
and freer under a Monarchy than a Eepublic. 
After all I have said, done, and written for the 
Bourbons, I should be the basest of the human 
race if I denied them when, for the third and 
last time, they are directing their steps towards 
exile."'^ 

On the morning of the next day, the 9th, 
the Chamber of Deputies met at the Palais 
Bourbon. It was a very exciting scene, and 
strong opposition was manifested against pro- 
claiminpj the Duke of Orleans kinsr. After an 
angry debate the motion was carried, that, 

"Considering that the king, Charles X., his 
royal highness Louis Antoine, dauphin, and 
all the members of the elder branch of the 
royal family, are at this moment quitting 
French territory, the throne is declared to be 
vacant, de facto and dejure^ and that it is indis- 
pensably needful to provide for the same." 

The friends of the duke felt that their only 
hope consisted in driving the question to an 
immediate decision. The Chamber of Depu- 
ties had no legal authority to elect a king. 
* Moniteur, August 3, 1830. 



296 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

Louis Philippe chosen king. 

M. Fleury demanded that the electoral colleges 
should be invoked to elect a new assembly, 
with special powers delegated to the Deputies 
to elect a king. The demand was not listened 
to. M. de Corcelles urged that the question 
should be submitted to the people, that the 
voice of universal suffrage might decide what 
should be the form of government for France, 
and who should be the sovereign. This prop- 
osition was rejected. The venerable Labbey 
de Pompieres then demanded that the voters 
should inscribe their names and their votes in 
a register. This they had not courage to do; 
for, in case of the return of the Bourbons, they 
would lose their heads. 

"Thus," writes Louis Blanc, "the crown of 
France was voted as a simple matter of by- 
law resfulation." 

After some amendments of the charter, the 
vote was taken. It was a tumultuous scene, 
and there is some little discrepancy in the 
number of votes given as the result of the 
ballot. Louis Blanc gives the result as fol- 
lows : 

Number of voters 252 

White balls 229 

Black balls 33 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Throne. 297 

Subsequent vote for Napoleon. 

"Thus," he adds, "229 Deputies, who in or- 
dinary times would have formed a majority of 
but two voices, had modified the constitution, 
pronounced the forfeiture of one dynasty, and 
erected a new one." 

France contained between thirty and forty 
million inhabitants. Two hundred and twen- 
ty-nine Deputies, with no delegated authority 
to do so, decided upon the form of government 
for these millions, and chose their sovereign. 

When, several years after, the throne of 
Louis Philippe was overthrown, an appeal to 
universal suflfi-age re-established the Empire, 
and placed the crown upon the brow of Napo- 
leon IIL In this act the voice of the nation 
was heard. The vote was taken throusfhout 
the eighty-six departments of France, in Al- 
giers, in the army, and in the navy. The re- 
sult was as follows: 

Affirmative votes 7,844,180 

Negative 253,145 

Irregular 63,32G 

Total 8,160,651 

The action of the Deputies in choosing Louis 
Philippe king greatly exasperated the Demo- 
crats. They endeavored to stir up insurrectioD 



298 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Eeply of the Duke of Orleans. 



in the streets ; but the journals were against 
them, and they had neither leaders of any re- 
pute, organization, or money. A procession, 
four abreast, marched through the streets to the 
Palais Eoyal, to inform Louis Philippe of his 
election by their body to the throne of France. 
The newly elected king feelingly replied : 

"I receive with deep emotion the declara- 
tion you present to me. I regard it as the ex- 
pression of the national will ; and it appears to 
me conformable to the political principles I 
have all my life professed. Full of remem- 
brances which have always made me wish that 
I might never be called to a throne, and habit- 
uated to the peaceful life I led in my family, I 
can not conceal from you all the feelings that 
agitate my heart in this great conjuncture. But 
there is one which overbears all the rest — that 
is, the love of my country. I feel what it pre- 
scribes to me, and I will do it." 

According to Alison, in the Chamber of 
Peers eighty -nine voted "the address to the 
Duke of Orleans to accept the throne, while ten 
voted against it." But there was great infor- 
mality in all these hurried proceedings. "We 
will not," writes Lamartine, " enter into the de- 
tails of these gradual approaches to the throne 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Throne. 299 

Testiraouy of Alison. 

during the five days which preceded the elec- 
tion of one who had no title, by a Parliament 
which had no mission, to a royalty which had 
no rights.""^ 

In the same spirit Sir Archibald Alison 
writes: "Thus did a small minority, not ex- 
ceeding a third of either Chamber, at the dicta- 
tion of a clique in the antechambers of the 
Duke of Orleans, dispose of the crown to a 
stranger to the legitimate line, without either 
consulting the nation or knowing what form 
of government it desired. "f The two Cham- 
bers hurriedly prepared a constitution, to which 
Louis Philippe gave his assent. The ceremo- 
ny of inauguration — it could scarcely be called 
coronation — took place with much pomp, in 
the Chamber of Deputies, on the 9th of Au- 
gust, 1830. 

" Gentlemen, peers, and deputies," said the 
Duke of Orleans, "I have read with great at- 
tention the declaration of the Chamber of 
Deputies and the adhesion of the peers, and I 
have weighed and meditated upon all its ex- 
pressions. I accept, without restriction or re- 
serve, the clauses and engagements which that 

* History of the Restoration, vol. iv., p. 489. 
t Alison, vol. vi., p. 463. 



300 Louis Philippe. [1830. 

The iuanguratiou. 

declaration contains, and the title of King of 
the French, which it confers upon me." He 
then took the following oath : 

" In the presence of God, I swear to observe 
faithfully the Constitutional Charter, with the 
modifications contained in the declaration ; to 
govern only by the laws and according to the 
laws ; to render fair and equal justice to every 
one according to his right, and to act in every 
thing in no other view but that of the interest, 
the happiness, and the glory of the French 
people." 

The hall resounded with shouts of ^^ Vive le 
RoiP'' The new-made sovereign, with a splen- 
did cortege, retired, to take up his residence 
in the Tuileries as Kinsr of the French. The 
Revolution was consummated. The throne of 
Louis Philippe was erected. 

Louis Philippe, during his reign of about 
eighteen years, encountered nothing but trou- 
ble. The advocates of Legitimacy — of the 
divine right of kings — regarded him as an 
usurper. As the voice of the nation was not 
consulted in placing him upon the throne, the 
masses of the people deemed themselves de- 
frauded of their rights, and hated him as the 
representative only of the moneyed aristocracy 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Throne. 801 

The Liberal party. 

of Paris. The bitterness with which he was 
assailed by the Liberal party may be inferred 
from the following extract from the '"Kevolu- 
tion of 1848," by Louis Blanc: 

" Whatever may have been the baseness 
of Rome under the Caesars, it was equalled 
by the corruption in France in the reign of 
Louis Philippe. Nothing like it had ever 
been witnessed in history. The thirst for gold 
having obtained possession of minds agitated 
by impure desires, society terminated by sink- 
ing into brute materialism. The formula of 
selfishness — every one by himself and for 
himself — had been adopted by the sovereign 
the maxim of state ; and that maxim, alike 
hideous and fatal, had become the ruling prin- 
ciple of government. It was the device of 
Louis Philippe, a prince gifted with moder- 
ation, knowledge, tolerance, humanity ; but 
skeptical, destitute either of nobility of heart 
or elevation of mind ; the most experienced 
corrupter of the human race that ever appear- 
ed on earth." 

There were thirt37-four millions of people in 
France. Of these, but one hundred and fifty 
thousand of the richest proprietors enjoyed the 
right of suffrage. Consequently, the laws were 



302 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



The Liberal party. 



framed to favor the rich. All the efforts of 
the people to secure a reform of the electoral 
law proved unavailing. The agitation of the 
subject increased every year, and the cry for 
parliamentary reform was ever growing loud- 
er and more menacing. Many of the illustri- 
ous men in France joined this reform par- 
ty. Among others, there was M. Lafitte, the 
wealthy banker, M. Odillon Barrot, the re- 
nowned advocate, and M. Arago, the distin- 
guished philosopher. 

We may search history in vain for the rec- 
ord of any monarch so unrelentingly harassed 
as was Louis Philippe from the time he as- 
cended the throne until he was driven from 
it. He was irreproachable in morals, a man 
who had seen much of the world in all its 
phases, sagacious and well-meaning. But he 
was placed in a position in which no earthly 
wisdom could rescue him from the direst trou- 
ble. There were two antagonistic and very 
powerful parties watching him. 

The one was the Liberal party in France, 
of various shades of opinion, demanding equal 
rights for all men ; hating the old dynastic 
despotisms of Europe who had forced the 
Bourbons upon them, and hating those treaties 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Throne. 303 

The Legitimists. 

of Vienna of 1815, which had shorn France of 
a large portion of her territory, and had bound 
Europe hand and foot, so as to prevent any 
future uprising of the friends of popular lib- 
erty. 

The other party consisted of the old aristoc- 
racy of France, the Legitimists, supported by 
the sympathies of all the courts of Europe, 
who were supposed to be not only willing but 
eager to unite their armies to maintain the 
principles of the old regime in France, and 
thus to prevent the establishment there of 
those principles of popular liberty which 
would endanger all their thrones. 

The difference between these two parties 
was irreconcilable. As Louis Philippe was 
situated, he was compelled to choose between 
the two. He chose the latter. This involved 
him in unrelenting and unintermitted war 
with the former. Alison says, " Concession to 
the Eepublican party, and a general change in 
external policy, so earnestly pressed upon him 
by the Liberals, would lead at once to a gen- 
eral war ;" that is, the surrounding dynasties 
would not permit free institutions to be estab- 
lished in France. 
, Louis Philippe was a man of great decision 



804 Louis Philippe. [1830. 



Firmness of the king. 



of character, as his friends would say. His 
enemies called that trait stubbornness. In a 
letter purporting to have been written on the 
9th of November, 1849, by his son, the Prince 
de Joinville, to the Duke de Nemours, the 
writer says to his brother : 

'• I write one word to you, for I am disquiet- 
ed at the events which I see on all sides thick- 
ening around us. Indeed, I begin to be serious- 
ly alarmed. The king is inflexible. He will 
listen to no advice. His own will must prevail 
over every thing. There are no longer any 
ministers. Their responsibility is null. Every 
thing rests with the king. He has arrived at 
an age when observations are no longer listen- 
ed to. He is accustomed to govern, and he 
loves to show that he does so." 

The king is reported to have said, at the 
close of a Cabinet meeting, in reply to some 
who urged concessions to the Liberal party, 
" Every one appears to be for reform — some 
demand it, others promise it. For my part, I 
will never be a party to such weakness. Re- 
form is another word for war. When the op- 
position succeed to power, I shall take my de- 
parture." 

This was the declaration of the king — that 



1830.] Louis Philippe's Thkone. 305 

Law prohibiting assemblies. 

the surrounding dynasties would not permit 
popular rights in France. An ancient law of 
the old regime did not allow the people to as- 
semble to discuss affairs of state. Louis Phi- 
lippe revived the law, and enforced it rigor- 
ously. To evade this prohibition, large dinner- 
parties, or banquets, as they were called, were 
introduced, which afforded an opportunity of 
offering toasts. 

U 



806 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



Death of General Lamarque. 



Chapter X. 

The Adventures of the Duchess 
DE Berri . 

LOmS PHILIPPE had scarcely taken his 
seat upon the throne ere he found himself 
involved in apparently inextricable embar- 
rassments. Legitimists and Kepublicans were 
alike hostile to his reign. That he might con- 
ciliate the surrounding dynasties, and save 
himself from such a coalition of crowned heads 
as crushed Napoleon L, he felt constrained to 
avow political principles and adopt measures 
which exasperated the Eepublicans, and yet 
did not reconcile the Legitimists to what they 
deemed his usurpation. Notwithstanding the 
most rigid censorship of the press France has 
ever known, the Government was assailed in 
various ways, continuously and mercile^ly, 
with rancor which could scarcely be surpassed. 
On the 1st of June, 1832, General Lamarque 
died — one of the most distinguished generals 
of the Empire. He had gained great popular- 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 807 



The funeral. 



ity by his eloquent speeches in the tribune in 
favor of the rights of the people. Napoleon, at 
St. Helena, spoke of him in the highest terms 
of commendation. His death occurred just at 
the moment when Paris was on the eve of an 
insurrection, and it was immediately resolved 
to take advantage of the immense gathering 
which would be assembled at his funeral to 
raise the banner of revolt. A meeting of all 
the opposition had just been held at the house 
of the banker, M. Lafitte, who had been so in- 
fluential an agent in crowning the Duke of 
Orleans. A committee had been appointed, 
consisting of Lafayette, Odillon Barrot, M. Man- 
guin, and others of similar influence and rank, 
to draw up an address to the nation. All the 
leaders of the popular committees were very 
busy in preparation for the outbreak, and arms 
were secretly distributed and officers appointed, 
that they might act with efficiency should they 
be brought into collision with the royal troops. 
The funeral took place on the 5th of June. 
It was one of the most imposing spectacles Par- 
is had ever witnessed — assembling, apparent- 
ly, the whole population of the metropolis, with 
thousands from the provinces. A magnificent 
car, decorated with tricolor flags, bore the re- 



308 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



strength of the royal forces. 



mains. The procession moved from the house 
of the deceased through the Rue St. Honore to 
the Church of the Madeleine, and thence, by 
way of the teeming Boulevards, to the Place of 
the Bastile, where several funeral orations were 
pronounced, and where the body was received, 
to be taken to its place of burial in the south 
of France. All the Republican and Demo- 
cratic clubs turned out in full strength. The 
Chamber of Deputies was present. Banners, 
inscribed with exciting popular devices, floated 
in the air. 

The police of Paris was maintained by two 
thousand municipal guards. In anticipation 
of an outbreak, the Government had summon- 
ed into the squares of the city an additional 
force of twenty-two thousand troops, consist- 
ing of eighteen thousand infantry, four thou- 
sand cavalry, and eighty pieces of cannon. 
And, as an additional precaution, there was a 
reserve of thirty thousand troops stationed in 
the vicinity of Paris who could in an hour be 
brought into the "streets. Apparently here 
was ample force to crush any uprising of the 
populace. 

But, on the other hand, the populace could 
easily rally an enthusiastic mass of one hun- 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 809 

Movement of the procession. 

dred thousand men. Large numbers of these 
were accustomed, in their clubs, to act in con- 
cert. Their leaders were appointed — each one 
having his special duty assigned to him. Not 
a few of these were veteran soldiers, who had 
served their term in the army, and there were 
military men of distinction to lead them. The 
forces, therefore, which might be brought into 
collision were not very unequal. 

The immense procession commenced its 
movement at ten o'clock in the morning. The 
whole city was in excitement. All hearts 
were oppressed with the conviction that tu- 
multuous scenes might be witnessed before the 
sun should go down. When the head of the 
procession reached the Place Yendome, it was 
turned from its contemplated course, so as to 
pass up through the Place and the Eue de la 
Paix to the Boulevards, thus marching beneath 
the shadow of the magnificent column of Aus- 
terlitz, which has given the Place Yendome 
world-wide renown. 

Cries of Yive la Republique began now to 
be heard. A hundred and fifty pupils of the 
celebrated military school, the Polytechnic, join- 
ed the procession, shouting "Fwe la LiherteP^ 
These shouts were soon followed by the still 



310 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



Speech of General Uminski. 



more ominous cry, "J. has Louis Philippe T 
"F^Ve Lafayette r The storm of popular ex- 
citement was rapidly rising. 

When the funeral-car had reached its point 
of destination, near the bridge of Austerlitz, 
where the remains were to be transferred to 
those who would carry them to their distant 
place of burial, several brief funeral orations 
were pronounced, adroitly calculated still more 
intensely to arouse popular feeling. A Polish 
refugee, General Uminski, in an impassioned 
harangue, said : 

" Lamarque, you were the worthy represent- 
ative of the people. You were ours. You 
belonged to the human race. All people who 
love freedom will shed tears at your tomb. 
In raising your noble voice for Poland, you 
served the cause of all nations as well as 
France. You served the cause of liberty — 
that of the interests dearest to humanity. 
You defended it against the Holy Alliance, 
which grew up on the tomb of Poland, and 
which will never cease to threaten the liberties 
of the world till the crime which cemented it 
shall have been effaced by the resurrection of 
its unfortunate victim."* 

* Louis Blanc, iii., 296. 




THE BARRICADE. 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 3V6 



Advance of the cuirassiers. 



The agitation was now indescribable. Gen- 
eral Lafayette was urged to repair to the Ho- 
tel de Yille and organize a provisional govern- 
ment. The crowd unharnessed his horses and 
began, with shouts, to draw him in his carriage 
through the streets. Suddenly the cry was 
raised, "The Dragoons!" A mounted squad- 
ron of cuirassiers, with glittering swords and 
coats of mail, in a dense mass which filled the 
streets, came clattering down at the full charge 
upon the multitude, cutting right and left. 
Blood flowed in torrents, and the wounded 
and the dead were strewn over the pavements. 
The battle was begun. Fiercely it raged. 
Barricades were instantly constructed, which 
arrested the progress of the' troops. As by 
magic, fire-arms appeared in the hands of the 
populace. Notwithstanding the general tu- 
mult and consternation, order emerged from 
the chaos. Every house became a citadel for 
the insurgents, and two armies were found con- 
fronting each other. 

The king and his council, in session at the 
Tuileries, were greatly alarmed. At three 
o'clock the tidings were brought that one-third 
of the metropolis, protected by barricades, was 
in the possession of the insurgents, and that 



814 Louis Philippe. [1832. 

The Provisional Government. 

the aspect of affairs was threatening in the ex- 
treme. Orders were transmitted for all the 
royal troops within thirty miles of Paris to 
hasten to the capital. The night passed in tu- 
mult and terror. Armed bands were surging 
through the streets. The solemn boom of the 
tocsin floated mournfully through the air. 
The shoutings of the populace, and the fre- 
quent explosions of artillery and musketry, add- 
ed to the general dismay and gloom. There 
was no sleep in Paris that night. Fifty thou- 
sand troops of the line and fifty thousand of 
the National Guard were marching to their 
appointed places of rendezvous in preparation 
for the deadly strife which the morrow would 
certainly usher in. The populace were no less 
busy, organizing in military bands, collecting 
arms, throwing up barricades, and seizing im- 
portant posts. Both parties were alike aware 
that the Government could place but little re- 
liance upon the National Guard, as many of 
them were known to be in sympathy with the 
people. 

A provisional government had in reality, 
as it were, organized itself. While Louis Phi- 
lippe and his ministers were in session at the 
Tuileries, Lafayette, M. Lafitte, and other dis- 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 315 

Marshal Soult in command. 

tinguished men, who but a few months before 
had placed Louis Philippe upon the throne, 
were in secret assembly at the mansion of M. 
Lafitte, issuing orders for the overthrow of 
that throne. Their orders were received by 
the leaders of the populace, and thus there 
was unity and efficiency of action.* 

During the night there were several bloody 
conflicts, in which the populace were generally 
successful. With their head-quarters at the 
Porte St. Martin, and pushing out their in- 
trench ments on both sides of the river, before 
the dawn a large part of the city was under 
their control. The Government forces were 
mainly concentrated at the Tuileries, the 
Louvre, and the Hotel de Yille. 

Marshal Soult was in command of the royal 
troops. Wherever his sympathies might be 
in the peculiar emergency which had risen, he 
felt bound to be true to his oath and his col- 
ors. By ten o'clock in the morning he had 
eighty thousand men under his command, in- 
cluding six thousand cavalry, with one hun- 
dred and twenty pieces of artillery. Strong as 
this force was, it was none too strong for the 
occasion. There was great consternation at 

* Alison, vol. vii. , p. 77. 



316 Louis Philippe. [1882. 



The conflict. 



the Tuileries. To prevent the soldiers of the 
National Guard from passing over to the peo- 
ple, they were intermingled with the troops of 
the line. 

The conflict which ensued was one of the 
most terrible ever recorded in the history of 
insurrections. Thirty thousand compact royal 
troops, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, slowly 
marched along the Boulevards, battering down 
the barricades, and sweeping the streets with 
musketry and grape-shot. Another band of 
thirty thousand traversed, in an equally san- 
guinary march, the streets which bordered the 
banks of the Seine. They were to meet at the 
bridge of Austerlitz. 

The houses of Paris are of stone, five or six 
stories high. Each house became a citadel 
filled with insurgents, which kept up a dead- 
ly fire upon the advancing columns. The 
slaughter on both sides was dreadful ; on ei- 
ther side was equal courage and desperation. 
A very bloody struggle took place at the Clois- 
ter of St. Meri, which strong position the insur- 
gents held with the utmost determination. 

" The tocsin," writes Sir Archibald Alison, 
"incessantly sounded from the Church of St. 
Meri to call the Eepublicans to the decisive 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 817 

The conflict at St. Meri. 

point; and they were not wanting to the ap- 
peal. Young men, children of twelve years 
of age, old men tottering on the verge of the 
grave, flocked to the scene of danger and 
stood side by side with the manly combatants, 
Never had there been, in the long annals of 
revolutionary conflicts, such universal enthu- 
siasm and determined resolution on the part 
of the Republicans." 

Before the terrific fire from the windows 
and from behind the barricade the whole col- 
umn of royal troops at first recoiled and fled 
back in confusion. But heavy artillery was 
brought forward ; a breach was battered 
through the barricade ; shells were thrown be- 
yond to scatter the defenders, while an inces- 
sant storm of bullets penetrated every window 
at which an assailant appeared. The royal 
troops rushed through the breach. Quarter 
was neither given nor asked. On both sides 
the ferocity of demons was exhibited. This 
closed the conflict. The insurrection was 
crushed. The royal troops admitted a loss in 
killed and wounded of 417. The loss of the 
insurgents can never be known, as both the 
dead and the wounded were generally convey- 
ed away and secreted by their friends. 



318 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



The insurrection quelled. 



On the morning of the 6th, the leaders of 
the Liberal party were sanguine of success. 
But the unexpected display of governmental 
force rendered the revolt hopeless. The lead- 
ers, who had been a.cting in entire secrecy, dis- 
persed, and Alison says that they quietly slip- 
ped over to the other side, and sought only to 
mitigate the victor's wrath. A deputation was 
appointed by some of the citizens to call upon 
the king, congratulate him upon his victory^ and 
implore him to temper justice with mercy. 

The king angrily replied, " Who is responsi- 
ble for the blood which has been shed ? The 
miserable wretches who took advantage of the 
funeral of General Lamarque to attack the 
Government by open force. The cannons you 
have heard have demolished the barricades of 
St. Meri. The revolt is terminated. I do not 
know why you should suppose that violent 
measures are to be adopted ; but, rely upon it, 
they are loudly called for. I know that the 
press is constantly endeavoring to destroy me ; 
but it is by the aid of falsehood. I ask you, is 
there any person of whom you have ever heard, 
against whom a greater torrent of calumny has 
been poured forth than against myself?"* 

* Les Dix Ans de Louis Philippe, vol. iii., p. 318, 



1882.] The Duchess de Berri. 319 



Severity of the Government. 



The next morning a decree was issued or- 
dering all the printing-presses opposed to the 
Government to be broken to pieces, and substi- 
tuting courts-martial instead of the ordinary tri- 
bunals to try all cases connected with the insur- 
rection. The Government regarded the move- 
ment as a combined attempt of the Eepub- 
licans and the Legitimists. Hence Garnier 
Pages, the Democrat, and Viscount Chateau- 
briand, the Bourbonist, found themselves ar- 
rested as accomplices in the same rebellion. 

Three days after, on the 10th of June, Cha- 
teaubriand wrote from his prison to M. Ber- 
tin, editor of Le Journal des Debats^ that he 
had refused to take the oath of allegiance to 
Louis Philippe, first because his government 
was not founded upon legitimate succession, 
and second, that it was not founded on popu- 
lar sovereignty. 

A few weeks after this, upon his release, 
Chateaubriand visited the young prince, Louis 
Napoleon, who, in studious retirement, was 
residing with his mother, Queen Hortense, in 
their beautiful retreat at Arnemberg, on the 
Lake of Constance. The prince had just pub- 
lished a work entitled " Political Eeveries," in 
which he took the ground that the voice of the 



820 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



Numerous prosecutions. 



people is the legitimate foundation of all gov- 
ernment; that the people, in the exercise of 
universal suffrage, should decide upon their 
form of government and choose their rulers. 
Chateaubriand read this treatise with much in- 
terest, suggested the substitution of the word 
nation for that of people, and became personally 
the warm friend of the young prince, though 
still adhering to the doctrine of legitimacy and 
to his allegiance to the Bourbons.* 

The government of Louis Philippe pursued 
and punished with the greatest energy those 
engaged in the revolt. " The number of the 
prosecutions," writes Alison, "exceeded any 
thing previously witnessed, not merely in 
French, but in European history. The re- 
strictions complained of during the Restoration 
were as nothing compared to it. From the ac- 
cession of Louis Philippe to the 1st of October, 
a period of a little more than two years, there 
occurred in France 281 seizures of journals 
and 251 judgments upon them. I^o less than 
81 journals had been condemned, of which 41 
were in Paris alone. The total number of 
months of imprisonment inflicted on editors 
of journals during this period was 1226, and 
* CEuvres de Napoleon III., t. i., p. 393. 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 821 

The Duchess cle Berri. 

the amount of fines levied 347,550 francs 
[$80,000]. This is perhaps the hottest war- 
fare, without the aid of the censorship, ever 
yet waged, during so short a period, against 
the liberty of the press. The system of Louis 
Philippe was to bring incessant prosecutions 
against the parties responsible for journals, 
without caring much whether they were suc- 
cessful or not, hoping that he should wear 
them out by the trouble and expense of con- 
ducting their defenses."* 

Thus terminated the Kepublican attempt to 
overthrow the throne of Louis Philippe. And 
now let us turn to an attempt of the Legiti- 
mists to accomplish the same end. About 
eleven months after the enthronement of Louis 
Philippe, in March, 1831, the Duchess de Ber- 
ri, having obtained the reluctant consent of 
Charles X., set out from Scotland for the 
south of France, to promote a rising of the 
Bourbon party there in favor of the Duke of 
Bordeaux — whom we shall hereafter call by his 
present title, the Count de Chambord — and to 
march upon Paris. The Legitimist party was 

* History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon to the Ac- 
cession of Louis Napoleon, by Sir Archibald Alison, vol. iii., 
p. 82. 

X 



822 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



statement of Louis Blanc. 



rich, and was supported generally by the cler- 
gy and by the peasantry. In the south of 
France and in La Yendee that party was very 
strong. 

'' The idea of crossing the sea at the head of 
faithful paladins; of landing after the perils 
and adventures of an unexpected voyage, in a 
country of knights-errant; of eluding, by a 
thousand disguises, the vigilance of the watch- 
ful enemies through whom she had to pass; 
of wandering, a devoted mother and banished 
queen, from hamlet to hamlet, and chateau to 
chateau; of testing humanity, high and low, 
on the romantic side, and, at the end of a vic- 
torious conspiracy, of rearing in France the 
standard of the monarchy — all this was too 
dazzling not to captivate a young and high- 
spirited woman, bold through very ignorance 
of the obstacles she had to surmount, heroic in 
the hour of danger through levity ; able to en- 
dure all but ennui, and ready to lull any mis- 
givings with the casuistry of a mother's love."* 

The ex-king, Charles X., who, having ab- 
dicated, had no power to nominate to the re- 
gency, still issued a decree, dated Edinburgh, 
March 8th, 1831, by which he authorized "a 
* Louis Blanc. 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 823 

The reception of the duchess in Italy. 

proclamation in favor of Henry V., in which it 
shall be announced that Madame, Duchess de 
Berri, is to be regent of the kingdom during 
the minority of her son."* 

The duchess, assuming the title of Countess 
of Segana, crossed over to Holland, and, as- 
cending the Rhine and traversing the Tyrol, 
safely reached Genoa. The King of Sardinia, 
Charles Albert, received her kindly, and loan- 
ed her a million francs. But the French con- 
sul discovered her through her disguise, and 
by order of the French Court the Sardinian 
king felt constrained to request her to with- 
draw from his domains. 

The Duke of Modena received her hospita- 
bly, and assigned to her use the palace of Mas- 
sa, about three miles from the sea. Here, with 
confidential advisers, she matured her plans. 
Secret agents were sent to all the principal cit- 
ies in France, to organize royalist committees 
and to prepare for a general uprising. The 
plan was for the insurrection to break out first 
in the west of France, to be immediately fol- 
lowed by all the southern provinces. 

While affairs were in this posture, a very 

* By the laws of France the dauphin attained his majority 
at the age of thirteen. 



824 Louis Philippe. [1881 



Abolition of the peerage. 



curious measure was adopted by the Govern- 
ment, which merits brief notice. The Cham- 
ber of Deputies, composed of the bourgeoisie^ 
voted the abolition of the hereditary peerage. 
This was a constitutional amendment, which 
needed to be ratified by the Chamber of 
Peers. But the Peers were not disposed thus 
to commit suicide. Louis Philippe had been 
placed upon the throne by the bourgeoisie. 
The nobles were Bourbonists. He felt con- 
strained to support the measures of his friends. 
He therefore created, by royal ordinance, thirty- 
six new peers to vote the abolition of the peer- 
age, and thus the vote was carried.* A vote 
was also passed banishing forever from the soil 
of France every member of the elder branch 
of the house of Bourbon. These measures, of 
course, exasperated the friends of the ancient 
regime, and rendered them more willing to en- 
ter into a conspiracy for the dethronement of 
the Citizen Kin 2^. 

At Massa the duchess had assembled several 
prominent men to aid her with their advice 

* In the British House of Lords the Crown will often carry 
a measure by a similar action. By the Constitution of the 
Empire in France, under Napoleon III., this was rendered 
impossible. 



1831.] The Duchess de Berri. 325 

Vigilance aud severity of the Government. 

and co-operation. But, as was to have been 
expected, these men soon quarrelled among 
themselves. The brother of the Duchess de 
Berri was now King of Naples. But he did 
not dare to afford his sister an asylum, as the 
French Government threatened, in that case, 
immediately to send a fleet and an army from 
Toulon and bombard the city of Naples. 

Proclamations and ordinances were prepared, 
to be widely distributed. A provisional gov- 
ernment, to be established in Paris, was organ- 
ized, on paper, to consist of the Marquis de 
Pastoret, the Duke de Bellino, the Viscount 
Chateaubriand, and the Count de Kergarlaz. 

In the mean time the officers of the Govern- 
ment were watching with the utmost vigilance 
every movement in the south of France, and 
punishing with terrible severity, by shooting, 
bayoneting, and hanging, and often without 
trial, those who were suspected of being im- 
plicated in the anticipated Bourbon uprising. 
The duchess was much deceived by the flatter- 
ing reports she was receiving from her friends. 
Though they correctly described the intense 
dissatisfaction of the country with the govern- 
ment of Louis Philippe, they greatly exagger- 
ated the numbers and the zeal of those whom 



326 Louis Philippe. [1882. 



A midnight adventure. 



thej supposed to be ready to rally around the 
banner of the Bourbons. 

The 2J:th of April, 1832, was fixed for the 
departure. The utmost secrecy was necessary, 
as the spies of Louis Philippe were all around. 
Arrane^ements had been made for a small 
steamer, the Carlo Alberto, in the darkness of 
the night to glide into the harbor, take on 
board the duchess and her suite, and convey 
them to Marseilles. It was given out that the 
duchess was about to visit Florence. At night- 
fall of the 24th a travelling carriage, with four 
post-horses, was drawn up before the ducal 
palace. The duchess, with one gentleman and 
three ladies, entered, and in the darkness the 
carriage was rapidly driven a short distance 
from the gate of Massa, when, upon some pre- 
text, it stopped for a moment beneath the shad- 
ow of a his^h wall. While some directions were 
given, to engage the attention of the postilion, 
the duchess, with Mademoiselle Lebeschu and 
M. de Brissac, glided out of the door unper- 
ceived, when the door was shut and the horses 
again set out uprii the gallop for Florence. 

The duchess and her friends stealthily moved 
along under the shadow of the wall, until they 
reached a secluded spot upon the sea-shore 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 327 



The embarkation. 



where the steamer was expected. The ma- 
jor of a body of troops in that vicinity joined 
them, with a lantern, as a signal to guide the 
boat from the expected steamer to the shore. 
Here they remained, in breathless silence and in 
much anxiety, for an hour. Just as the clocks 
in the distant churches were tolling the hour of 
midnight, a feeble light was seen far away over 
the water. It was the Carlo Alberto, the steam- 
er for which they were waiting. Kapidly it ap- 
proached ; a boat was sent ashore. The Prin- 
cess Marie Caroline, worn out with cares and 
anxieties, or — which is the more probable — 
possessed of that gay, untroubled spirit which 
no cares could agitate, was wrapped in her 
• cloak and soundly asleep on the sand. Her 
companions did not awake her till the boat was 
about to touch the beach. It was three o'clock 
in the morning. The duchess and her suite, 
composing a party of seven — Mademoiselle 
Lebeschu being her only lady attendant — were 
soon transferred from the shore to the deck of 
the Carlo Alberto. 

All were conscious that the enterprise upon 
which they had embarked was perilous in the 
extreme. Its success would greatly depend 
upon what is called chance. The duchess ap- 



328 Louis Philippe. [1882. 



The night storm. 



peared calm and cheerfal, as if determined not 
to doubt of a triumphant result, and manifestly 
resolved to wipe from the Bourbon name the 
charge of pusillanimity which it has so often 
incurred. 

To avoid the French cruisers the Carlo Al- 
berto kept far out to sea, and did not reach 
Marseilles until midnight of the 28th. The 
party was to be landed near the light-house, 
where a rendezvous had been fixed for the 
small but determined band who were to meet 
her there. The moment the steamer cast an- 
chor the signal of two lanterns was raised, one 
at the foremast head and the other at the 
mizzen-mast head, which signal was instantly 
responded to from the shore. Dark clouds 
had gathered in the sky, and the moanings of a 
rising gale and the dashings of the surge added 
to the gloom of the hour. The gentlemen who 
were to accompany Marie Caroline to the shore 
were dressed in the disguise of fishermen. The 
sea had become so high that it was with difii- 
culty and peril that the party could embark. 
At one time the boat was dashed so furiously 
against one of the paddle-boxes of the steamer 
that the destruction of all on board seemed in- 
evitable. Through all these trying scenes the 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 829 

The lauding at Marseilles. 

fragile, sylph-like duchess manifested intrepid- 
ity which excited the wonder and admiration 
of every beholder. The little skiff which was 
to convey her to the beach soon disappeared 
in the darkness of that stormy sea. 

The landing occurred without accident, and 
Marie Caroline scaled the rocks, along a path 
which tried the nerves even of the boldest 
smugglers, till she reached a temporary hut 
which had been reared to afford her shelter. 
The vigilance, however, of the Government 
police had not been entirely eluded. That 
very evening the authorities, in some way, re- 
ceived the rumor that the duchess had landed, 
or was about to land, at Marseilles, to com- 
mence the uprising there. Immediate and vig- 
orous preparations were adopted to quell it. 
The force of every military post was doubled. 

A band of about two thousand of her parti- 
sans was the next morning assembled at an 
appointed rendezvous in the citj^ They ran 
up the white banner of the Bourbons upon the 
spire of St. Laurient, and began shouting vocif- 
erously, "Fwe Henri Crnqr — hoping to excite 
a general insurrection, and that the whole pop- 
ulace of the city would join them. They did 
create intense agitation, and wonder, and be- 



830 Louis Philippe. [1832. 

The insurrectiou. 

wilderment. Men, women, and children ran to 
and fro, and the alarm-bells were violently rung 
from the steeples. The duchess was still in her 
hut, waiting for the favorable moment in which 
to make her appearance. When she saw the 
Bourbon flag unfurled from St. Laurient, she 
was deluded by the hope that the success of 
the enterprise was secured. 

But soon the regular troops appeared in 
solid battalions. The crowd fled before them. 
A few of the insurgents who attempted to 
make a stand were dispersed by a bayonet 
charge, their leaders captured, and the Bour- 
bon flag disappeared ! By one o'clock it was 
all over — the emeuie had utterly and hopeless- 
Iv failed ! 

Her despairing friends urged her immediate- 
ly to repair to the steamer, and to take refuge 
with the Bourbons of Spain. Heroically she 
replied, "I am in France now, and in France 
will I remain." We have not space here to 
enter into the detail of her wonderful adven- 
tures, which she seemed to enjoy as if she were 
merely engaged in a school-girl frolic. Prob- 
ably she felt assured that if she were taken 
prisoner, her royal blood, her relationship with 
the queen, as tier niece, and the sympathy of 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 331 

Wild adventures. 

most of the courts of Europe in what they 
deemed the righteousness of her cause, would 
save her from any very severe treatment. 

"Disguised as a peasant-boy, and accompa- 
nied by no one but Marshal Bourmont, also 
in disguise, she set out on foot to walk across 
France, through fields and by-paths, a distance 
of four hundred miles, to the department of 
La Yendee, where the Bourbon party was in its 
greatest strength. The first night they lost 
their way in the woods. Utterly overcome by 
exhaustion, the duchess sank down at the foot 
of a tree and fell asleep, while her faithful at- 
tendant stood sentinel at her side. 

" There is nothing in the pages of romance 
more wild than the adventures of this frivolous 
yet heroic woman. She slept in sheds, encoun- 
tered a thousand hair -breadth escapes, and, 
with great sagacity, eluded the numerous bands 
who were scouring the country in quest of her. 
At one time, in an emergency, she threw her- 
self upon the protection of a Eepublican, bold- 
ly entering his house, and saying, 'I am the 
Duchess of Berri : will you give me shelter?' 
He did not betray her. After such a journey 
of fifty daj^s, she reached, on the 17th of May, 
the chateau of Plassac, near Saintcs, in La Ven- 



882 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



" Little Peter. 



dee, where a general rising of her friends was 
appointed for the 24th. Nearly all the Yen- 
dean chiefs were then awaiting the summons. 
On the 21st of May, the duchess — still in the 
costume of a young peasant, presenting the 
aspect of a remarkably graceful and beautiful 
boy, and taking the name of 'Little Peter' — 
repaired on horseback to an appointed rendez- 
vous at Meslier."^ 

Here her disappointment was bitter. The 
Government troops were on the alert, fully 
prepared for any conflict. Her own friends 
were despairing. There was no enthusiasm 
manifested to enter upon an enterprise where 
defeat and death seemed inevitable. Passion- 
ately she entreated her friends not to abandon 
her, delineating the great risks she had run. 
It was all in vain. No general uprising could 
be secured. There were a few despairing con- 
flicts, but the feeble bands of the insurgents 
rapidly melted away before the concentration 
of the Government troops. 

Still, the duchess herself escaped capture. 
Accompanied by a single guide, and apparent- 
ly insensible to hardship or peril, she wandered 
through the woods, often sleeping in the open 
* Abbott's Life of Napoleon IIL, p. 87. 



1832.] The Duchess de Behki. 833 

Perilous wauderingg. 

air, and occasionally carried upon tbe shoul- 
ders of her attendant through the marshes. 

"On one occasion," writes Alison, "when 
the pursuit was hottest, she found shelter in a 
ditch covered with bushes, while the soldiers 
in pursuit of her searched in vain, and probed 
with their bayonets every thicket in the wood 
with which it was environed. The variety, 
the fatigue, the dangers of her life, had inex- 
pressible charms for a person of her ardent 
and romantic disposition. She often said, 
' Don't speak to me of suffering. I was never 
so happy at Naples or Paris as now.' "* 

She took great pleasure in a variety of dis- 
guises. Sometimes, in the picturesque cos- 
tume of a peasant'girl, with coarse wooden 
shoes on her little feet, she would enter a town 
filled with Koyalist troops, and converse gayly 
with the gendarmes who guarded the gates. 
The coasts of France were so watched by Gov- 
ernmental vessels as to render her escape by 
water almost impossible. She consequently 
decided to seek a retreat in Nantes, a city in 
which she had so few adherents that no one 
would suspect her taking refuge there. 

In the disguise of a peasant-girl, with one 

* Alison. 



334 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



Letter to the queen. 



female companion, she entered the city, and 
was concealed by a few friends who perilled 
their lives in so doing. For several months 
she eluded all the ejfforts of the Government 
to find her. In the mean time, the partisans 
of the duchess were pursued and punished 
with the most terrible severity. No mercy 
was shown them. The duchess, from her re- 
treat, kept up a lively correspondence with 
her friends, still hoping that fortune might 
turn in her favor. Pleading in behalf of these 
men, she wrote as follows to her aunt, the 
queen : 

"Whatever consequences may result for 
me, from the position in which I have placed 
myself while fulfilling my duties as a mother, 
I will never speak to you, madame, of my own 
interests. But brave men have become in- 
volved in danger for my son's sake, and I can 
not forbear from attempting whatever may be 
done with honor, in order to save them. 

" I therefore entreat my aunt, whose good- 
ness of heart and religious sentiment are 
known to me, to exert all her credit in their 
behalf. The bearer of this letter will furnish 
details respecting their situation. He will. 



1882.] The Duchess i)e Berri. 335 

The letter returned. 

state that the judges given them are men 
against whom they have fought. 

"Notwithstanding the actual difference in 
our positions, a volcano is under your feet, 
madame, as you know. I knew your alarm — 
your very natural alarm — at a period when I 
was in safety, and I was not insensible to it. 
God alone knows what He destines for us, and 
perhaps you will one day thank me for having 
had confidence in your goodness, and for hav- 
ing given you an opportunity of exerting it in 
behalf of my unfortunate friends. Kely on 
my gratitude. I wish you happiness, madame, 
for I think too highly of you to believe it pos- 
sible that you can be happy in your present 
situation. Marie Caroline." 

This letter was conveyed to the queen at St, 
Cloud. She probably read it ; but it was im- 
mediately returned to the bearer, who was in 
waiting, with the declaration that the queen 
could not receive it. Five months had now 
elapsed since the duchess entered Nantes. It 
is by some supposed that Louis Philippe did 
not wish to have her arrested. He would be 
fearfully embarrassed to know what to do with 
her. It would hardly do to restore her to lib* 



836 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



Note from Louis Blanc. 



erty while her partisans were cruelly punished 
with death. It was not easy to decide upon 
the tribunal which would sit in judgment upon 
her. The peerage would have recoiled with 
horror from passing judgment upon a princess, 
who endeavored to gain the throne for a child, 
who was entitled to that throne bj the avowed 
principles of legitimacy. 

A renegade Jew, by the name of Deutz, at 
length betrayed her. By the most villainous 
treachery he obtained an interview with the 
duchess, and then informed the police of the 
place of her retreat. It was the 6th of No- 
vember. In the following words Louis Blanc 
describes the preparations made for her ar- 
rest : 

" The first communication between M. Thiers 
and Deutz took place under the following cir- 
cumstances : M. Thiers one day received a let- 
ter wherein a stranger begged him to repair in 
the evening to the Champs Elysees, promising 
to make him a communication of the very 
highest importance. At the appointed hour 
he proceeded to the Champs Elysees, with a 
brace of pistols ready in his coat-pockets. At 
the spot indicated in the letter he perceived a 
man standing, who seemed agitated with fear 



1832.] The Duchess de Bekri. 387 

The traitor Deutz. 

and doubt. He approached and accosted this 
man. It was Deutz. A conference was opened, 
which ended in a base crime. The next night, 
by an arrangement of the police, Deutz was 
introduced into the office of the Minister of the 
Interior. ' You can make a good thing of this,' 
said M. Thiers. The Jew shook with agita- 
tion at the idea ; bis limbs trembled under 
him, and his countenance changed. The price 
of the treachery was settled without difficulty." 
No sooner had Deutz withdrawn than bay- 
onets glittered in every direction, and commis- 
sioners of police rushed into the house, with 
pistols in their hands. The duchess had bare- 
ly time to take refuge, with three companions, 
in a small recess behind the fire-place, which 
was adroitly concealed by an iron plate back 
of the chimney. The police commenced a mi- 
nute search, calling masons in to aid them. 
The walls were sounded with hammers, arti- 
cles of . furniture moved and broken open. 
Night came while the search continued. The 
space in which they were confined was very 
narrow, with but one small aperture for the 
admission of air. They barely escaped sufib- 
cation by applying their mouths in turn to 
this hole, but three inches in diameter. 

Y 



838 Louis Philippe. [1882. 

Discovery and arrest. 

The gendarmes, fully satisfied that the duch- 
ess must be concealed somewhere in the house, 
took possession of the room and lighted a iire 
in the chimney, which converted their hiding- 
place into a hot oven. The heat soon became 
insupportable. The iron plate had become 
red-hot. One of the prisoners kicked it down, 
and said, " We are coming out ; take away the 
fire." The fire was instantly brushed away, 
and the duchess and her companions, after 
having endured sixteen hours of almost insup- 
portable torture, came forth in great exhaus- 
tion, and yet the duchess almost gayly said, 
referring to the ancient martyr roasted upon a 
gridiron, 

" Gentlemen, you have made war upon me 
a la St. Laurent. I have nothing to reproach 
myself with. I have only discharged the duty 
of a mother to gain the inheritance of her 
son."* 

The captive was treated with the respect 
due to her rank. After a brief confinement at 
Nantes, she was transferred to the citadel of 
Blaye, one of the most gloomy of prisons, on 
the left bank of the Gironde. All the efiects 
of this princess of royal birth, who had enter- 

* Memoires de la Duchesse de Berri, pp. 87-90. 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 389 

Iraprisoument at Blaye. 

ed France as regent, were tied up in a pock- 
et-handkerchief. Measures were apparently 
adopted to keep her in close captivity, without 
trial, for a long time. The fortress was thor- 
oughly manned with nine hundred men, and 
put in a state of defense, as if anticipating a 
siege. Three gun-boats were stationed in the 
river. The small building within the walls of 
the citadel, which was assigned to the duchess, 
was surrounded with a double row of pali- 
sades ten or twelve feet high. The windows 
were covered with strong iron bars, and even 
the apertures of the chimneys were closed with 
an iron grating. Even the gay spirit of the 
princess was subdued by the glooms in which 
she was enveloped. 

Still, from many eminent men of her own 
party she received gratifying proofs of fidelity. 
Chateaubriand issued an eloquent pamphlet 
which won the applause of the Legitimists 
throughout Europe. In this he had the bold- 
ness to exclaim, "Madame, your son is my 
king." In a letter of condolence to the prin- 
cess, in which he offered his professional serv- 
ices in her defense, he said : 

"Madame, — You will deem it inconsiderate. 



340 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



The terrible secret. 



obtrusive, that at such a moment as this I 
entreat you to grant me a favor, but it is the 
high ambition of my life. I would earnestly 
solicit to be numbered among your defenders. 
I have no personal title to the great favor I 
solicit of your new grandeur, but I venture to 
implore it in memory of a prince of whom you 
deigned to name me historian, and in the name 
of my family's blood. It was my brother's 
glorious destiny to die with his illustrious 
grandfather, M. de Malesherbes, the defender 
of Louis XYL, the same day, the same hour, 
for the same cause, and upon the same scaf- 
fold. Chateaubeiand." 

But a terrible secret was soon whispered 
abroad, which overwhelmed the princess with 
shame, and which filled the court of Louis 
Philippe with joy, as it silenced all voices 
which would speak in her favor. It became 
evident that the duchess was again to become 
a mother. Por a princess, the child, sister, and 
mother of a king, secretly to marry some un- 
known man, was deemed as great a degrada- 
tion as such a person could be guilty of. The 
shame was as great as it would be in New 
York for the daughter of a millionaire secretly 



1832.] The Duchess j)e Bekki. 841 



The marriasre auuouucemeut 



to marry a negro coachman. It consigned tlie 
princess to irremediable disgrace. But the 
situation in which she found herself compelled 
her to acknowledge her marriage. The univers- 
al assumption was that she had not been mar- 
ried. Secrecy divests marriage of its sanctity. 

The sufferings through which the princess 
passed were awful. No pen can describe 
them. Could she but be released from prison, 
her shame might be concealed. Her tears and 
entreaties were all unavailing. Louis Phi- 
lippe, unmindful that the princess was the 
niece of his wife, deemed that the interests of 
his dynasty required that she should be held 
with a firm grasp until the birth of her child 
should consign her to ignominy from which 
there could be no redemption. 

On the 22d of February, 1833, the duchess 
placed in the hands of General Bugeaud, gov- 
ernor of the citadel of Blaye, the following 
declaration: 

*' Urged by circumstances, and by the meas- 
ures ordered by the Government, though 1 
had the strongest reason to keep my marriage 
secret, I think it a duty to myself and m}^ 
children to declare that I was secretly married 
during my residence in Italy." 



842 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



Humiliations of the duchess. 



To a friend, M. de Mesnard, she wrote: "I 
feel as if it would kill me to tell jou what fol- 
lows, but it must be done. Vexatious annoy- 
ances, the order to leave me alone with spies, 
the certainty that I can not get out till Sep- 
tember, could alone have determined me to 
declare my secret marriage." 

The humiliations to which the -unhappy 
duchess was compelled to submit were dread- 
ful. The detail would be only painful to our 
readers. On the morning of the 10th of May 
a daughter was born, whom God kindly, ere 
long, removed to another world. The fact, 
minutely authenticated, was proclaimed to all 
Europe. Thus far Marie Caroline had kept 
secret the name of her husband. But it was 
now necessary that his name should be given, 
to secure the legitimacy of her child. It was 
then announced, by the officiating physician to 
the group of officials which the Government 
had placed around her bed, that the father of 
the child was Count Hector Sucheri Palli, gen- 
tleman of the chamber to the King of the Two 
Sicilies. 

In commenting upon these events, Louis 
Blanc writes: "The partisans of. the new dy- 
nasty exulted with indecent zeal at the event 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 843 

Comments of Louis Blanc. 

of which the ministers had so well prepared 
the scandal. The Kepublicans only manifest- 
ed the contempt they felt for this ignoble tri- 
umph. As for the Legitimists, they were 
overwhelmed with consternation. Some of 
them, however, still persisted in their daring 
incredulity; and they did not hesitate to de- 
nounce the document, upon which their ene- 
mies relied as the denouement of an intrigue 
which had begun with violence and ended 
with a lie. Separated from her friends, de- 
prived of their counsels, dead to the world, to 
the laws, to society, was it possible for Marie 
Caroline to make any valid deposition against 
herself, and that, too, surrounded by her ac- 
cusers, by her keepers, by the men who had 
vowed her destruction ?" 

Thus, while one party af&rmed that there 
was no truth in the alleged birth or marriage, 
the Orleanists declared that the Duchess of 
Berri had not only given birth to a child of no 
legitimate parentage, but that the Duke of 
Bordeaux, who was born seven months after 
the assassination of the Duke of Berri, was 
also the child of dishonored birth, and had, 
therefore, no title whatever to the crown. 
Such is the venom of political partisanship. 



344 Louis Philippe; [1832. 



The duchess liberated. 



On the 8th of June, Marie Caroline, who 
could no longer claim the title of Eegent of 
France, but who had sunk to the lowly condi- 
tion of the wife of an Italian count, was liber- 
ated from prison. She had fallen into utter 
disgrace, and was no longer to be feared. 
With her child and her nurse, abandoned bj 
those friends who had gathered around the re- 
gent, she sailed for Palermo. Her brother, the 
king, received her kindly, and she was joined 
by Count Lucheri Palli. Few troubled them- 
selves to inquire whether she were ever married 
to the count or not. We hear of her no more. 

These events broke up the Legitimists into 
three parties. The one assumed that, under 
the circumstances, the abdication of Charles X. 
was not to be regarded as binding; that he 
was still king, and to him alone they owed 
their allegiance. The second took the posi- 
tion that, in consequence of the suspicions cast 
upon the birth of the Duke of Bordeaux, the 
abdication in favor of the duke was null, and 
that the dauphin, the Duke de Angouleme, 
was the legitimate heir to the crown. The 
third party still adhered to the Duke of Bor- 
deaux, recognizing him as king, under the ti- 
tle of Henry Y. Thus terminated in utter 



1832.] The Duchess de Berki. 345 



Death of the Duke of Reichstadt. 



failure the Legitimist endeavor to overthrow 
the throne of Louis Philippe. 

While these scenes were transpiring, the 
Duke of Reichstadt, the only son of Napoleon 
L, and, by the votes of the French people, 
the legitimate heir to the throne of the Em- 
pire, died in Vienna, on the 22d of Julj^ 1832. 
Commenting upon this event, Louis Blanc 
writes : 

"In a calm, lovely day, there was seen ad- 
vancing through a perfectly silent crowd, along 
the streets of that capital of Austria which 
once looked down abashed and terror-struck 
beneath the proud eagles of Napoleon, a 
hearse, preceded by a coach and a few horse- 
men. Some attendants walked on either side, 
bearing torches. When they arrived at the 
church, the court commissioner, in pursuance 
of a remarkable custom of the country, pro- 
ceeded to enumerate the names and titles of 
the deceased. Then, knocking at the door, he 
solicited for the corpse admission to the temple. 
The princes and princesses of the house of Aus- 
tria were there awaiting the body, and attend- 
ed it to the vault, into which the fortune of the 
Empire then descended forever. The death 
of the son of ISTapoleon occasioned no surprise 



846 Louis Philippe. [1832. 



Louis Napoleon. 



among the nations. It was known that he 
w^as of a very sickly constitution, and besides 
poison had been spoken of. Those who think 
every thing possible to the fear or ambition 
of princes had said, He hears too great a name 
to livey 

The attempts subsequently made by Louis 
Napoleon for the restoration of the Empire, 
which failed at Strasbourg and Bologne, but 
which finally gave the Empire to France 
through twenty years of unparalleled prosper- 
ity, we have not space here to record. They 
will be found minutely detailed in Abbott's 
History of ISTapoleon III. 

In reference to these unsuccessful attempts, 
Louis Blanc writes: "Of the two sons of the 
ex -king of Holland, ISTapoleon's brother, the 
elder, we have seen, had perished in the Italian 
troubles, by a death as mysterious as prema- 
ture. The vouno^er had retired to Switzer- 
land, where he applied himself unceasingly to 
the preparation of projects that flattered his 
pride and responded to the most earnest aspi- 
rations of his soul. 

" Kephew to him whom France called the 
Emperor, the emperor par excellence (impera- 
tor), and condemned to the vexations of an ob- 



1832.] The Duchess de Berri. 347 

Statement of Louis Blauc. 

scare youth ; having to avenge his proscribed 
kindred, while hinaself exiled by an unjust law, 
from a country he loved, and of which it 
might be said, without exaggeration, that Na- 
poleon still covered it with his shadow — Lou- 
is Bonaparte believed himself destined at once 
to uphold the honor of his name, to punish the 
persecutors of his family, and to open to his 
disgraced country some way to glory. 

"His design was to make trial of the pres- 
tige of his name to overthrow the Orleans dy- 
nasty, after which he would convoke the peo- 
ple, consult and obey it. Nothing is more cer- 
tain than that this respect for the principle 
of the sovereignty of the people was perfectly 
sincere and honest on the part of the young 
prince. But the hopes with which he flattered 
his ambition were not the less grand on that 
account. Heir to the imperial tradition, might 
he not be the choice of the people ? 

"He was generous, enterprising, prompt in 
military exercises, and the uniform sat upon 
him with a manly grace. There was no braver 
officer^ no more gallant cavalier. Though 
the expression of his countenance was gentle, 
rather than energetic and imperious — though 
there was an habitual languor in his looks, 



348 Louis Philippe. [1836. 



Death of Charles X. 



often dashed with thought, no doubt the sol- 
diers would love him for his frank bearing, his 
honest and hearty speech, his small figure, re- 
sembling his uncle's, and the imperial lightning 
which tlie passion of the moment kindled in 
his blue eye. What a name, too, was his!"* 

Charles X. was overwhelmed by his misfor- 
tunes. His health rapidly failed. He was 
often heard to say, " The day is not far distant 
that shall witness the funeral of the poor old 
man." On the morning of November 4, 1836, 
he was seized with a chill, v/hile temporarily 
residing at Goritz, in Styria. It proved an 
attack of cholera. His sufferings were severe, 
but he was calm and resigned, and conversed 
freely upon the eternity opening before him. 
The Duke of Bordeaux and his sister were 
brought into the room to receive his blessing. 
He placed his trembling hands upon their heads 
and said, " God protect you, my children. Walk 
in the ways of righteousness ; do not forget me; 
pray for me sometimes." A deep lethargy 
came upon him ; and, after a few hours of ap- 
parent insensibility, he breathed his last, at the 
age of 79 years. 

* "The History of Ten Years," by Louis Blanc, vol, Li., 
p. 453. 



1833.] The Final Struggle. 349 

Letter to Louis Napoleon. 



Chapter XI. 
The Final Struggle. 

THE Liberal party in France, despairing of 
any effectual reform under the govern- 
ment of Louis Philippe, began to turn their 
thoughts to the re-establishment of the Empire 
under Louis Napoleon, a young prince, the 
nephew and heir of Napoleon L, then residing 
in studious seclusion at Arnemberg, in Switz- 
erland. The prince had already obtained 
some celebrity by his writings in' favor of pop- 
ular rights. One of the leading republicans 
wrote to him : 

" The life of the king is daily threatened. If 
one of these attempts should succeed, we should 
be exposed to the most serious convulsions ; for 
there is no longer in France any party which 
can lead the others, nor any man who can in- 
spire general confidence. The great name 
which you bear, your opinions, your character, 
every thing, induces us to see in you a point of 
Tallying for the popular cause. Hold yourself 



850 Louis Philippe. [1833. 

Honors to the memory of Napoleou L 

ready for action. When the time shall come, 
your friends will not fail you."* 

Every month there seemed to be rising en- 
thusiasm in respect to the Napoleonic name. 
Louis Philippe had but just taken his seat upon 
the throne, when a petition was presented to 
the Chamber of Deputies praying that the re- 
mains of the Emperor might be claimed of the 
British Government, and transferred from St. 
Helena to Paris. In a speech made by M. 
Mortigny, on the occasion, he said : 

"Napoleon established order and tranquil- 
lity in our country : he led our armies to vic- 
tory : his sublime genius put an end to anar- 
chy : his military glory made the French name 
respected throughout the world, and his name 
will ever be pronounced with emotion and 
veneration." 

In the Place Yendome a column was reared 
in commemoration of the deeds of the French 
army. It had been surmounted by the statue 
of Napoleon. The Allies tore down the effigy. 
The people now demanded that the statue 
should be restored. The Government could 
not refuse. On the 28th of July, 1838, the 
statue of the emperor again rose to that proud 

* Vie de Lonis Napoleon, t, i., p. 22. 



1836.] The Final Struggle. 351 



The Arc de I'Etoile. 



summit, in the midst of, apparently, the uni- 
versal acclaim of Paris and France. 

On the 1st of August, 1834, a statue of the 
emperor was placed in the court -yard of the 
Eoyal Hotel des Invalides, accompanied by as 
imposing civil and religious ceremonies as 
France had ever witnessed. 

In the year 1806, Napoleon I. had laid the 
foundations of the Arc de I'Etoile, at the en- 
trance of the most superb avenue in the world. 
The people now demanded the completion of 
the monument. Preparations were made for 
a magnificent fete on the 29th of July, 1836, 
when the completed arc was to be unveiled. 
But Louis Philippe had become so excessively 
unpopular, he was so incessantly pursued by 
assassins, that it was not deemed safe for him 
to appear at the ceremony. The magnificent 
monument was unveiled without any ceremo- 
ny — the Moniteur proclaiming to Europe the 
humiliating declaration that the king could 
no longer with safety appear in the streets of 
Paris. "The soil," writes a French annalist, 
" was so sown with assassins that there was no 
safety for the monarch but within the walls of 
his palace.""^ 

* Alison, vol. iii.,p. 206. 



852 Louis Philippe [1840. 



The "Target King." 



All over the kingdom insurrections were 
constantly bursting out, and there were bloody 
conflicts in Lyons, Marseilles, and other places. 
And now the demand became irresistible for 
the transfer of the remains of Napoleon to 
Paris. Such a scene of national homage as this 
great occasion manifested the world never wit- 
nessed before. In 1840, the eyes of the world 
were fixed upon this grand funereal pageant. 
The honored remains were transferred from 
the lonely grave at St. Helena, placed beneath 
the dome of the Invalides, and over those 
remains a nation's gratitude has reared a man- 
ument which attracts the admiration of the 
world. 

But these reluctant yieldings to popular sen- 
timent did not add to the popularity of Louis 
Philippe. He was shot at so frequently that 
he received the sobriquet of the Target King ! 
A volume might be filled with the recital of 
the foul attempts to assassinate him. His days 
must have passed in constant wretchedness. 
He was assailed in low blackguardism in the 
journals : he was assailed with envenomed elo- 
quence, by such men as Lamartine, at the ban- 
quets ; and his path was dogged, with dag- 
ger and pistol, by such brutal wretches as 



1842.] The Final Struggle. 355 

Death of the Duke of Orleans. 



Fieschi, Boirier Meunier, Alibaud, and many 
others. 

Louis Philippe, in the relations of private 
life, was one of the best of men. His charac- 
ter had been formed in the school of misfor- 
tune. He was not a man of generous affec- 
tions ; the fearful discipline through which he 
had passed rendered this almost impossible. 
He was greedy of money, and exceedingly 
desirous of aggrandizing his family by such 
matrimonial alliances as would strengthen his 
dynast}^ 

On the 18th of July, 1842, the king expe- 
rienced one of the heaviest calamities of his 
life — a calamity quite irreparable. His eldest 
son, who, upon the enthronement of his fathei-, 
had taken the title of the Duke of Orleans, 
was a very noble young man, quite popular 
with the people and in the army. He was be- 
lieved to be far more liberal in his views than 
his father. He was driving in his carriage from 
Paris to Keuilly ; the horses took fright, and 
the driver lost his control over them. The 
duke endeavored to leap from the carriage; 
his head struck the ground, and his brain was 
so injured that he breathed but a few hours, in 
insensibility, and died. Thus sadly the direct 



856 Louis Philippe. [1842. 



The Count de Paris. 



heir to the throne was cut off. The succession 
reverted to his son, the Count of Paris — an 
infant child, then in the arms of its nurse. 

This young man — who subsequently married 
his cousin, a daughter of the Duke of Mont- 
pensier, and who has been residing much of 
the time at Twickenham, in England — is, at 
the present writing, the Orleans candidate for 
the throne of France. He is deemed a worthy 
man — has two children, but never has been 
placed in circumstances to develop any marked 
traits of character. As the Count of Chambord 
has no children, upon his death the Count of 
Paris becomes the legitimate candidate for the 
throne. 

The Count of Chambord had married the 
Archduchess Maria Thei'esa-Beatrice, of Mode- 
na, eldest sister of the reigning duke of that 
principality, and the only prince in Europe 
who had refused to recognize Louis Philippe. 
" It was a singular proof of the mutations of 
fortune that the direct descendant of Louis 
XIY. deemed himself fortunate upon being ad- 
mitted into the family of a third-rate Italian 
potentate."* 

Louis Philippe, during his reign of about 

* Alison, vol. viii.. p. 193. * 



1848.] The Final Struggle. 357 

Testimony of Louis Blanc. 

eighteen years, encountered nothing but trou- 
ble. The advocates of legitimacy — of the 
divine right of kings — regarded him as an 
usurper. As the voice of the nation was not 
consulted in placing him upon the throne, the 
masses of the people deemed themselves de- 
frauded of their rights, and hated him, as the 
representative only of the moneyed aristocracy 
of Paris. The bitterness with which he was 
assailed by the Liberal party may be inferred 
from the following extract from the "Revolu- 
tion of 1848," by Louis Blanc: 

" Whatever may have been the baseness of 
Rome under the Csesars, it was equalled by 
the corruption in France in the reign of Louis 
Philippe. Nothing like it had ever been wit- 
nessed in history. The thirst for gold having 
obtained possession of minds agitated by im- 
pure desires, society terminated by sinking into 
a brutal materialism. The formula of selfish- 
ness, every one by himself and for himself, had 
been adopted by the sovereign as the maxim of 
state; and that maxim, alike hideous and fatal, 
had become the ruling principle of govern- 
ment. It was the device of Louis Philippe — 
a prince gifted with moderation, knowledge, 
tolerance, humanity, but skeptical, destitute of 



So8 Louis Philippe. [1848. 



Opposition of the king. 



either nobility of heart or elevation of mind — 
the most experienced corrupter of the human 
race that ever appeared on earth !" 

There were thirty-four millions of people in 
France. Of these, but one hundred and fifty 
thousand of the richest proprietors enjoyed the 
right of suffrage. Consequently, the laws were 
framed to favor the rich. All the efforts of the 
people to secure a reform of the electoral law 
proved unavailing. The agitation of the sub- 
ject increased every year, and the cry for parlia- 
mentary reform was ever growing louder and 
more menacing. Many of the illustrious men 
in France joined this reform party. Among 
others, there were M. Lafitte, the wealthy 
banker, M. Odillon Barrot, the renowned ad- 
vocate, and M. Arago, the distinguished phi- 
losopher. 

We may search history in vain for the record 
of any monarch so unrelentingly harassed as 
was Louis Philippe from the time he ascended 
the throne until he was driven from it. He 
was irreproachable in morals, a man who had 
seen much of the world in all its phases, saga- 
cious and well meaning. But he was placed 
in a position in which no earthly wisdom could 
rescue him from the direst trouble. There 



1848.] The Final Struggle. 369 

Liberals and Legitimists. 

were two antagonistic and very powerful par- 
ties watching him. 

The one was the Liberal party in France, of 
varied shades of opinion, demanding equal 
rights for all men, hating the old dynastic des- 
potisms of Europe, who had forced the Bour- 
bons upon them, and hating those treaties of 
Vienna, of 1815, which had shorn France of a 
large portion of her territory, and had bound 
Europe hand and foot, so as to prevent any fu- 
ture uprising of the friends of popular liberty. 

The other party consisted of the old aristoc- 
racy of France, the Legitimists, supported by 
the sympathies of all the courts of Europe, who 
were supposed to be not only willing but eager 
to unite their armies to maintain the principles 
of the old regime in France, and thus to pre- 
vent the establishment there of those princi- 
ples of popular liberty which would endanger 
all their thrones. 

The difference between these two parties 
was irreconcilable. As Louis Philippe was 
situated, he was compelled to choose between 
the two. He chose the latter. This involved 
him in unrelenting and unintermitted war 
with the former. Alison says: " Concession to 
the Republican party and a general change in 



360 Louis Philippe. [1848." 

Letter from the Prince de Joiuville. 

external policy, so earnestly pressed upon him 
by the Liberals, would lead at once to a gen- 
eral war;" that is, the surrounding dynasties 
would not permit free institutions to be estab- 
lished in France. 

Louis Philippe was a man of great decision 
of character, as his friends would say. His 
enemies called that trait stubbornness. In a 
letter purporting to have been written on the 
9th of ISTovember, 1847, by his son, the Prince 
de Joinville, to the Duke de Nemours, the 
writer says to his brother : 

" I write one word to you, for I am disquiet- 
ed at the events which I see on all sides thick- 
enino" arodnd us. Indeed, I be2:in to be seri- 
OLisly alarmed. The king is inflexible. He 
will listen to no advice. His own will must 
prevail over every thing. There are no long- 
er any ministers. Their responsibility is null. 
Every thing rests with the king. He has ar- 
rived at an age when observations are no 
longer listened to. He is accustomed to gov- 
ern, and he loves to show that he does so." 

The king is reported to have said, at the 
close of a cabinet meeting, in reply to some 
who urged concessions to the Liberal party, 
''Every one appears to be for reform. Some 



1848.] The Final Steuggle. SOI 

The banquet!^. 

demand it, others promise it. For my part, I 
will never be a party to such weakness. Ke- 
form is another word for war. When the op- 
position succeed to power, I shall take my de- 
parture." 

This was the declaration of the king that 
the surrounding dynasties would not permit 
popular rights in France.. An ancient law of 
the old regime did not allow the people to as- 
semble to discuss affairs of state. Louis Phi- 
lippe revived the law, and enforced it vigor- 
ously. To evade this prohibition, large din- 
ner-parties, or banquets, as they were called, 
were introduced, which afforded an opportuni- 
ty of offering toasts and making speeches, in 
which the measures of Government were ve- 
hemently assailed. These banquets sprang up 
in all parts of the kingdom, and were attended 
by thousands. Arrangements were made for 
a mammoth banquet in the city of Paris on 
the 22d of February, 1848. The place select- 
ed was a large open space near the Champs 
Elysees. It would accommodate six thousand 
persons at the tables, and was to be covered 
with a canvas awning. 

The Government resolved to disperse the 
assembly by force. The leaders of the Oppo- 



362 Louis Philippe [1848. 



Agitation in Paris. 



sition, aware that they were not prepared for 
a resort to arms, entered into a compromise 
witli the Government. The guests were to 
meet at the appointed time and place for the 
banquet. The officers of the police were then 
to appear, order the assembly to disperse, and 
arrest the leaders, who were to be indicted for 
a breach of the law prohibiting political gath- 
erings. Thus the question of the right thus 
to assemble was to be referred to the legal 
tribunals. This compromise was gladly ac- 
ceded to by the Liberals, as many of them de- 
sired a change of ministry only, being very re- 
luctant to run the hazard of a change of dy- 
nasty. 

The Liberals accordingly announced to Par- 
is, by a proclamation, that the banquet was 
interdicted by the Government, but that there 
would be a general demonstration by forming 
a procession on the largest possible scale, to 
march to the appointed place of meeting, and 
there peaceably to disperse at the orders of 
the police. 

The Government was exceedingly alarmed 
when it learned that the banquet was convert- 
ed into a procession. This was magnifying 
the danger. The excitement in Paris was in* 



1848.] The Final Struggle. 863 

The procession prohibited. 

tense. It soon became manifest that not less 
than one hundred thousand men would join 
in the procession. A decree was accordingly 
issued by the prefect of police, stating that all 
who chose to go to the banquet individually 
could do so, but that any attempt to form a 
procession would meet with forcible resistance. 
This rendered it necessary for the Liberals ei- 
ther to give up the plan of the procession, or 
to run the risk of a collision with the royal 
troops, for which they were by no means pre- 
pared. 

The leaders of the Liberal party held a 
meeting, when the question was anxiously dis- 
cussed. Opinions on the subject were divided. 
One of the most prominent men of the party, 
M. Lagrange, urged decided measures. "Let 
the democracy," said he, "hoist its standard, 
and descend boldly into the field of battle for 
progress. Humanity, in a mass, has its eyes 
upon you. Our- standard will rally around 
us the whole warlike and fraternal cohorts. 
What more are we waiting for?" 

On the other hand, Louis Blanc said, "Hu- 
manity restrains me. I ask if you are entitled 
to dispose of the blood of a generous people, 
without any prospect of advantage to the 



864 Louis Philippe. [1848. 



^'he procession abandoned. 



cause of democracy. If the patriots commence 
the conflict to-morrow they will infallibly be 
crushed, and the democracy will be drowned 
in blood. That will be the result of to-mor- 
row's struggle. Do not deceive yourselves. 
Determine on insurrection, if you please ; but 
for my part, if ^-ou adopt such a decision, I 
will retire to my home, to cover myself with 
crape and mourn over the ruin of democracy." 

Ledru Eollin, following in the same strain, 
said, "Have we arms, ammunition, combatants 
ready? The Government is thoroughly pre- 
pared. The army only awaits the signal to 
crush us. My opinion is, that to run into a 
conflict in such circumstances is an act of 
madness." 

Under the influence of such views, it was 
decided to abandon the procession. The reg- 
ular troops in Paris at that time numbered 
twenty five thousand. There were as many 
more garrisoned in neighboring towns, who 
could in a few hours be concentrated in the 
city. Orders had been already issued for all 
the military posts of the capital to be strong- 
ly occupied. In consequence of these various 
measures, excitement pervaded the whole me- 
tropolis. Many of the Liberal party were 



1848.] The Final Struggle. 365 

Concentration of the ro3'al troops. 

not satisfied with the decision of their leaders. 
Many of the populace were also ignorant of 
the resolutions to which the committees had 
come at a late hour of the evening of the day 
before the procession was to have been formed. 

At an early hour in the morning of the 22d, 
immense crowds had assembled in the Place 
de la Madeleine, the Place de la Concorde, and 
the Champs Elysees, Here they swaj^ed to 
and fro, hour after hour, motiveless, awaiting 
the progress of events. M. Guizot was then 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and M. Duchate] 
Minister of the Interior. In the afternoon a 
large band of students swept through the 
streets singing the Marseillaise, and shouting 
"Long live Reform!" "Down with Guizot!" 
Agitation was rapidl}^ on the increase. Quite 
a large bod}^ of regular troops was stationed at 
the junction of the Rue Rivoli and the Rue St. 
Honore. Towards evening the excited mob 
pelted the troops Vv^ith stones, and commenced 
erecting barricades in the vicinity. There 
was, however, no other serious disturbance 
during the day. 

The Government, alarmed by these demon- 
strations, resolved to call out all its military 
force the next morning, both the regular troops 



366 Louis Philippe. [1848. 

Defection of the National Guard. 

and National Gruard, to maintain order. Con- 
sequently, at an early hour in the morning of 
the 23d, the generale was beat in all the streets, 
and the National Guard, more than forty thou- 
oand strong, hurried to their appointed places 
of rendezvous. This crowding of the streets 
with troops greatly increased the general ex- 
citement. All business was suspended. Many 
of the shops were closed. The whole popula- 
tion of Paris seemed to be upon the pavement. 
The National Guard, composed of the mid- 
dling class in the city of Paris, were most of 
them in favor of reform. Many of their offi- 
cers belonged to the Liberal party. Their 
commander-in-chief, General Jacquemont, was 
ready to sustain the Government. He was 
powerless without the co-operation of his offi- 
cers and men. In anticipation of the conflict 
which now seemed so menacing, large numbers 
of the officers held a secret meeting the night 
before, in which they decided to stand between 
the regular troops and the irresponsible popu- 
lace. They would, on the one hand, assist the 
people in demanding reform, and would pro- 
tect them from the assaults of the regular 
troops. On the other hand, they would defend 
the monarchy, and aid the troops in repelling 



1848.] The Final Stkuggle. 367 

Consternation at the Tuileries. 

insurrection and revolution. As the National 
Guard occupied every post conjointly with the 
regular troops, they would not allow the troops 
to disperse the assemblages of the people. It 
would have been destruction to the regular 
troops to engage in a conflict wnth the National 
Guard, supported as it would have been by the 
whole populace of Paris. 

In this singular posture of affairs, the guard 
standing between the regulars and the people, 
and not unfrequently joining with the people 
in shouts of Vive la Reforme^ the hours wore 
on. Many of the Liberal leaders were so en- 
couraged by this state of things that they dis- 
patched orders to the secret societies in the 
faubourgs immediately to come forth in all 
their banded strength, hoping to overawe the 
Government. These formidable bodies soon 
appeared, traversing the thoroughfares in ap- 
palling numbers. The cavalrj^ received orders 
to clear the streets. The guard formed into 
line in front of one of these bands, and with 
fixed bayonets held the cavalry back. The 
populace, inspired with new zeal, seized arms 
wherever they could be found and commenced 
throwing up barricades. 

The king was struck with consternation as 



368 Louis Philippe. [1848. 

A cabinet council summoned. 

these tidino;s were brous^ht to him at the Tuile- 
ries. A cabinet council was hastily convened. 
In view of the peril of the hour the king sent 
for the queen and his son, the Duke de Mont- 
pensier, to be present at the meeting of the 
ministers. Lamartine has given an account of 
the interview. The queen and the Duke de 
Montpensier both urged the king to dismiss 
his obnoxious ministers, and replace them by a 
Liberal ministry who should introduce parlia- 
mentary reform. The king was in entire sym- 
pathy with his ministers. They were carrying 
out his own policy. With tears in his eyes he 
declared that he had rather abdicate the throne 
than be separated from them. 

" You can not do that, my dear," said the 
queen; "you belong to France, and not to 
yourself. You can not abdicate." 

" True," replied the king, mournfully, "I am 
more to be pitied than the}^ I can not re- 
sign." 

^ M. Guizot, who was absent at the com- 
mencement of the meeting, had come in during 
the interview. The king turned to him and 
said, "My dear M. Guizot, is it your opinion 
that the Cabinet is in a situation to make head 
against the storm, and to triumph over it?" 



1848.] The Final Struggle. 869 

Kesignation of the ministry. 

The minister replied, " Sire, when the king 
proposes such a question he himself answers it. 
The Cabinet may be in a condition to gain the 
victory in the streets, but it can not conquer, 
at the same time, the royal family and the 
crown. To throw a doubt upon its support in 
the Tuileries is to destroy it in the exercise of 
power. The Cabinet has no alternative but to 
resign." 

The king was deeply moved as he felt thus 
compelled to accept their resignation. Tears 
dimmed his eyes. Affectionately embracing 
them, he bade them adieu, saying, " How hap- 
py you are ! You depart with honor, I remain 
with shame." 

Guizot himself announced his resignation to 
the Chamber of Deputies, then in session. The 
announcement w\as received with shouts of ap- 
plause from the Opposition benches. The 
tidings spread with electric speed through the 
streets. Night came, and large portions of the 
city blazed with illuminations, exultant bands 
surged through the streets, songs resounded, 
and the city presented an aspect of universal 
rejoicing. Still, with thinking men, there was 
great anxiety. Where would all this lead to ? 
Would the triumphant populace be satisfied 

A A 



370 Louis Philippe. [1848. 

Organization of the revolutionists. 

merely with a change of ministry? Might it 
not demand the overthrow of a dynasty ? If 
so, what government would succeed ? There 
were Legitimists, and Orleanists, and Imperial- 
ists, and moderate Republicans, and Socialists 
of every grade of ultra Democracy. Was 
France to be plunged into anarchy by the con- 
flict of these rival parties ? While the unre- 
flecting populace drank, and sang, and danced, 
and hugged each other in exultant joy, thought- 
ful men paused, pondered, and turned pale with 
apprehension. 

The ardent revolutionists began now to or- 
ganize in bands in different parts of the city. 
Three large bodies were speedily gathered ; 
one in front of the office of the Reform^ an 
other before that of the Nationale^ and a third 
in the Place de la Bastile. These three col- 
ums, led by such men, born to command, as 
ever emerge from the populace in scenes of ex- 
citement, paraded the illuminated streets, with 
songs and shouts and flaming torches, until 
they formed a junction in the Boulevard des 
Italiens. It was manifest that some secret but 
superior intelligence guided their movements. 
The Hotel of Foreign Affairs, then the resi- 
dence of M. Guizot, was in the Rue de Choi- 



1848.] The Final Stkuggll. 371 

Collision with the troops. 

seal. At the bead of that street a well-armed 
detachment broke off from one of the proces- 
sions, and, bearing with them the blood-red 
flag of insurrection, advanced to surround the 
hotel. 

A royal guard had been stationed here, con- 
sisting of a battalion of the line. The troops 
were drawn up across the street, presenting a 
rampart of bayonets to prevent the farther ad- 
vance of the column. Here the insurgents 
baited, face to face with the troops, almost 
near enough to cross bayonets. The leader 
of this column is thus graphically pictured by 
Lamartine : 

^'A man about forty years of age, tall, thin, 
with hair curled and falling on his shoulders, 
dressed in a white frock, well worn and stained 
with dirt, marched, with a military step, at 
their bead. His arms were folded over his 
chest, his head slightly bent forward with the 
air of one who was about to face bullets delib- 
eratel}^, and to brave death with exultation. In 
the eyes of this man, well known by the multi- 
tude, was concentrated all the fire of the Eevo- 
luticn. The physiognomy was the living ex- 
pression of the defiance of opposing force. His 
lips, incessantly agitated, as if b^^ a mental ha 



372 Louis Philippe. [1848. 



The conflict commeuced. 



rangue, were pale and trembling. We are told 
that his name was Lagrange." 

The commander of the royal troops sat on 
horseback in front of his line. The gleam of 
the torches and the waving of the insurgent 
banner frightened his horse. The animal 
reared, and, recoiling upon his haunches, broke 
through the line of troops, which in some con- 
fusion opened to let him pass to the rear. At 
this moment, either by accident or design, a 
musket-shot was discharged at the soldiers by 
some one of the insurgents ; Alison says by 
Lagrange himself. The troops, in the gloom 
of the night, agitated by the terrible excite- 
ments of the hour, and by the confusion into 
which their ranks were thrown by the retreat 
of their commander through them, deeming 
themselves attacked, returned the fire, point- 
blank, in full volley. By that one discharge 
fifty of the insurgents were struck down upon 
the pavements, killed or wounded. 

The street thus swept by bullets was crowd- 
ed with men, women, and children. The dis- 
charge echoed far and wide through Paris, cre- 
ating terrible alarm. Most who were present 
had not the remotest idea of danger, supposing 
that they had met only for a demonstration of 



1848.] The Final Struggle. 373 

Flight of the insurgents. 

joy. Apprehensive of another discharge, there 
was an immediate and tumultuous flight of the 
populace, the strong trampling the weak be- 
neath their feet. The insurgents took with 
them their dead and wounded. This acci- 
dental slaughter roused Paris to frenzy. It 
was regarded as the revenge which the minis- 
ters had taken for their overthrow. Several 
large wagons were procured, and the dead, ar- 
tistically arranged so as to display to the most 
imposing effect their blood and wounds, were 
placed in them. Torches were attached to the 
wasions, so as to exhibit the bodies of the slain. 
A woman was among the victims. Her life- 
less body, half naked, occupied a very conspic- 
uous position. A man stood by her side occa- 
sionally raising the corpse that it might be 
more distinctly seen. 

Thus, in the gloom of a dark and clouded 
night, this ghastly procession traversed all the 
leading streets of Paris, the whole population, 
of a citv of a million and a half of inhabitants, 
being then in the streets. The rage excited, 
and the cries for vengeance, were deep and al- 
most universal. Louis Philippe had no per- 
sonal popularity to sustain him. Legitimists 
and Republicans alike ignored his claims to 



374 Louis Philippe. [1848. 



Unpopularity of the king. 



the throne. He was regarded as intensely av- 
aricious, notwithstanding his immense wealth, 
and as ever ready to degrade France in sub- 
serviency to the policy of foreign courts, that 
he might gain the co-operation of these courts 
in the maintenance of his crown, and secure 
exalted matrimonial alHances for his children. 
There have probably been few, if any, kings 
upon the throne of France, who have had 
fewer friends or more bitter enemies than 
Louis Philippe. The following statement 
from the North American Review correctly ex- 
presses the sentiment of most thoughtful men 
upon the character of his administration : 

"During a reign in which his real authority 
and influence were immense, he did little for 
his country, little for the moral and intellect- 
ual elevation of his people, and nothing for the 
gradual improvement of the political institu- 
tions of his kingdom ; because his time and 
attention were absorbed in seeking splendid 
foreign alliances for his children, and in ma- 
noeuvring to maintain a supple majority in the 
Chambers, and to keep those ministers at the 
head of affairs who would second more heart- 
ily his private designs." 

While these scenes were transpiring, the 



1848.] Thk Final Struggle. 375 

The Duchess of Orleans. 

king, though greatly chagrined at the com- 
palsory dismissal of his ministers, yet supposed 
that he had thus appeased the populace, and 
that there was no longer danger of lawless vio- 
lence. Helen, duchess of Orleans, widow of 
the king's eldest son, a woman of much intelli- 
gence, had been greatly alarmed in apprehen- 
sion that the dynasty was about to be over- 
thrown. Her little son, the Count de Paris, 
was heir to the crown. Eelieved of her ap- 
prehensions by the dismissal of the obnoxious 
ministers, and not aware of what was transpir- 
ing in the streets, she pressed her child to her 
bosom, saying : "Poor child! your crown has 
been indeed compromised, but now Heaven 
has restored it to you." 

M. Guizot, at the time the untoward event 
occurred in front of his hotel, chanced to be at 
the residence of M. Duchatel, the ex-Minister 
of the Interior. As they were conversing, the 
brother of M. Duchatel entered, breathless and 
in the highest state of agitation, to communi- 
cate the tidings that the troops had fired upon 
the people, that the whole populace of Paris 
was in a ferment of indignation, and that there 
was imminent danger that the streets of the 
metropolis were about to be the theatre of the 



376 Louis Philippe. [1848. 



Midnight tumult. 



most fearful carnage. Should either of these 
ministers fall into the hands of the exasper- 
ated populace, their instant death was certain. 
They both hastened to the Tuileries. It was 
midnight. The terrible news had already 
reached the ears of the king. They found him 
in his cabinet with his son, the Duke de Mont- 
pensier, and other important personages. All 
were in a state of great consternation. M. 
Thiers was immediately sent for. The crisis 
demanded the most decisive measures, and yet 
the councils were divided. There was a very 
energetic veteran general in Paris, Marshal 
Bugeaud, who had acquired renown in the 
war in Algeria. He was popular with the 
soldiers, but very unpopular with the people. 
Inured to the horrors of the battle-field, he 
would, without the slightest hesitation, mow 
down the people mercilessly with grape-shot. 

The king was appalled, in view of his own 
peril and that of his family. He well knew 
how numerous and bitter were his enemies. 
He had not forgotten the doom of his predeces- 
sors in that palace, Louis XYI. and Maria An- 
toinette. For years assassins had dogged his 
path. All varieties of ingenious machines of 
destruction had been constructed to secure his 



1848.] The Final Struggle. 877 



Consternation of the royal family. 



death. He was appropriately called the Tar- 
get King, so constantly were the bullets of his 
foes aimed at his life. Even a brave man may 
be excused for being terrified when his wife 
and his children are exposed to every conceiv- 
able indignity and to a bloody death. Un- 
der these circumstances the king consented to 
place the command of the army in the hands 
of the energetic Marshal Bugeaud. It was 
now two o'clock in the morning. The veteran 
marshal, invested with almost dictatorial pow- 
ers, left the Tuileries in company with one of 
the sons of the kinsr, the Duke de Nemours, to 
take possession of the troops, and to arrange 
them for the conflict which was inevitable on 
the morrow. 

The impulse of a master-mind was imme- 
diately felt. Aided by the obscurity of the 
night, messengers were dispatched in every di- 
rection, and by five o'clock in the morning 
four immense columns of troops were advanc- 
ing to occupy important stra;tegic points, which 
would command the city. These arrange- 
ments being completed, the Duke de Nemours 
anxiously inquired of the marshal what he 
thought of the morrow. M. Bugeaud replied : 

" Monseigneur, it will be rough, but the vie- 



378 Louis Philippe. [1848. 

Marshal Bugeaud. 

tory will be ours. I have never yet been beat- 
en, and I am not going to commence to-mor- 
row. Certainly it would have been better not 
to have lost so much time ; but no matter, I 
will answer for the result if I am left alone. 
It must not be imagined that I can manage 
without bloodshed. Perhaps there will be 
much, for I begin with cannon. But do not 
be uneasy. To-morrow evening the authority 
of the king and of the law shall be re-estab- 
lished." 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 379 

Attempts at conciliation. 



Chapter XII. 
The Throne Demolished. 

IN the mean time the king formed a new 
and liberal ministry, consisting of MM. 
Thiers, Odillon Barrot, and Duvergier de Hau- 
ranne, hoping thus to conciliate the populace. 
The fact was placarded, at six o'clock in the 
morning, all over Paris. But the act of ap- 
pointing Marshal Bugeaud to command the 
troops was a declaration of war — the formation 
of this ministry was a supplication for peace. 
The one act was defiance, the other capitula- 
tion. Thus, while General Bugeaud was load- 
ing his cannon to the muzzle, and marshalling 
his troops for battle, he received an order, to 
his inexpressible chagrin, from the new minis- 
try directing him to cease the combat and to 
withdraw the troops, while at the same time an 
announcement was made, hy a proclamation to 
the people, that the new ministry had ordered 
the troops everywhere to cease firing, and to 
withdraw from the menacing positions which 



380 Louis Philippe. [1848. 



False coufldeuce of the kin<r. 



they occupied. The indignant marshal for a 
time refused to obey the order until it should 
be ratified by the sign -manual of the king. 
He soon, however, received a dispatch from the 
Duke de Nemours which rendered it necessary 
to submit. Thus the new ministry rejected the 
policy of resistance, and inaugurated that of 
conciliation. 

The king, worn out by excitement and fa- 
tigue, at four o'clock in the morning retired 
to his chamber for a few hours of sleep. He 
was so far deceived as to flatter himself that, 
through the measures which had been adopted, 
all serious trouble was at an end. He slept 
soundly, and did not rise until eleven o'clock, 
when he came down to the breakfast-room in 
morning-gown and slippers, and with a smiling 
countenance. Here appalling tidings met him. 
The exasperated populace were tearing down 
and trampling under foot the conciliatory proc- 
lamation of M. Thiers. The national troops, 
disgusted with the contradictory orders which 
had been issued, were loud in their clamor 
against the king. The National Guard was 
everywhere fraternizing with the people. The 
frenzy of insurrection was surging through all 
the thoroughfares of Paris. 



184:8.] The Theone Demolished. 881 

Resignation of Thiers. 

The king was silent in consternation. Im- 
mediately repairing to bis chamber, be dressed 
himself in the uniform of the National Guard, 
and returned to bis cabinet, where he was 
joined by two of bis sons, the Duke de Nemours 
and the Duke de Montpensier. All night long 
the dismal clang of the tocsin bad summoned the 
fighting portion of the population to impor- 
tant points of defense. Nearly all the churches 
were in the hands of the insurgents. Under 
cover of the darkness, barricades had been 
rising in many of the streets. The national 
troops bad retired, humiliated, to the vicinit}'- 
of the Tuileries and Palais Eoyal. Many of 
the soldiers, in their disgust, bad thrown away 
their muskets, while some of the officers, under 
similar feelings, had broken tbeir swords and 
cast them away upon the pavement. 

Affairs made sucb rapid progress that by ten 
o'clock M. Thiers became fully convinced that 
he had no longer influence with the people. He 
accordingly resigned the ministry, and M. Odil- 
lon Barrot, a man far more democratic in bis 
principles, was appointed prime-minister in bis 
stead. The Palais. Eoyal, the magnificent an- 
cestral abode of the Duke of Orleans, being left 
unguarded, the mob burst in, rioted through 



882 Louis Philippe. [1848. 



Scene in the palace. 



all its princely saloons, plundering and destroy- 
ing. Its paintings, statuary, gorgeous furniture, 
and priceless works of art were pierced with 
bayonets, slashed with sabre-strokes, thrown 
into the streets, and consumed with flames. 
In less than half an hour the magnificent apart- 
ments of this renowned palace presented but a 
revolting spectacle of destruction and ruin. 

The king, the queen, the Duchess of Orleans, 
and the Duke de Montpensier, with several dis- 
tinguished friends, were still in the breakfast- 
room — the Gallery of Diana, in the Tuileries. 
The mob, their hands filled with the plunder 
of the Palais Koyal, were already entering the 
Carrousel. Loud shouts announced their tri- 
umph to the trembling inmates of the royal 
palace, and appalled them with fears of the 
doom which they soon might be called to en- 
counter. Two of the gentlemen, M. Eemusat 
and M. de Hauranne, stepped out into the court- 
yard of the Tuileries to ascertain the posture 
of affairs. Speedily they returned, pale, and 
with features expressive of intense anxiety. 

"Sire," said M. Eemusat to the king, "it is 
necessary that your majesty should know the 
truth ! To conceal it at this moment would be 
to render ourselves implicated in all that may 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 383 

Heroism of the queeu. 

follow. Your feelings of security prove that 
you are deceived 1 Three hundred feet from 
here the dragoons are exchanging their sabres, 
and the soldiers their muskets with the people!" 

"It is impossible!" exclaimed the king, re- 
coiling with astonishment. 

" Sire," added an officer, M. de I'Aubosp^re, 
who was present, " it is true. I have seen it." 

The queen, re-enacting the heroism of Marie 
Antoinette on a similar occasion, said to her 
faint-hearted husband, "Go, show yourself to 
the discouraged troops, to the wavering Na- 
tional Guard. I will come out on the balcony 
with my grandchildren and the princesses, and 
I will see you die worthy of yourself, of your 
throne, and of your misfortunes." 

The king descended the stairs, while the 
queen and the princesses went upon the bal- 
cony. He passed through the court-yard of 
the Tuileries into the Carrousel. If any shouts 
were uttered of " Vive le Boi,^^ they were drown- 
ed in the cry which seemed to burst from all 
lips, " Vive la Reforme! cL has les Ministres P'' 

All hope was now gone ! The king, in de- 
spair, returned to the royal family. The panic 
was heart-rending — the ladies weeping aloud. 
The shouts which filled the air announced that 



384 Louis Philippe. [1848. 

The insurrection triumphant. 

the mob was approaching, triumphant, from all 
directions, while a rattling fire of musketry 
was heard, ever drawing nearer. Marshal Bu- 
geaud did what he could to arrest the advance 
of the insurgents, but his troops were sullen, 
and but feebly responded to any of his orders. 

In the midst of this terrible scene, the king 
took his pen to appoint another ministry, still 
more radically democratic than Barrot and 
Hauranne. As he was writing out the list, M. 
de Girardin entered the apartment. He was 
editor of the Times newspaper, and one of the 
most uncompromising Republicans in the city. 
Approaching the king, he said to him firmly, 
yet respectfully, 

^' Sire, it is now too late to attempt to form 
a new ministry. The public mind can not be 
tranquilized by such a measure. The flood of 
insurrection, now resistless, threatens to sweep 
away the throne itself. Nothing short of abdi- 
cation will now suffice." 

Upon the utterance of that fatal word, the 
king inquired anxiously, " Is there no other 
alternative ?" 

M. Girardin replied, " Sire, within an hour, 
perhaps, there will be no such thing as a mon- 
archy in France. The crisis admits of no third 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 385 

The abdication. 

alternative. The king must abdicate, or the 
monarchy is lost." 

The Duke de Montpensier, fully comprehend- 
ing the peril of the hour, earnestly entreated 
his father to sign the abdication. But, on the 
other hand, there were those who entreated the 
king, with equal fervor, not to sign it. M. Pis- 
catory and Marshal Bugeaud urged that abdi- 
cation would inflict a Republic "upon France, 
with no end to anarchy and civil war ; that the 
only way to meet the insurrection was to crush 
it by military power. 

The king hesitated. The clamor and the 
rattle of musketry increased and drew nearer. 
Messengers came in breathless, announcing 
that all was lost. The Duke de Montpensier, 
trembling in view of the irruption of the mob, 
and of the dreadful consequent doom of the 
royal family, with renewed earnestness en- 
treated his father to abdicate. Thus influ- 
enced, the king took his pen and wrote : 

"I abdicate this crown, which I received, 
from the voice of the nation, and which I ac- 
cepted only that I might promote the peace 
and harmony of the French. 

"Finding it impossible to accomplish this 
endeavor, I bequeath it to my grandson, the 

Bb 



886 Louis Philippe. [1848. 

Imminent danger of the royal family. 

Count de Paris. May he be more happy than 
I have been." 

It is said that the excitement and hurry of 
the occasion were so great that the king neg- 
lected to sign the abdication. Girardin, how- 
ever, took the paper and went out into the 
stormy streets to announce the important 
event. But Paris was now in a state of fer- 
ment which nothing could immediately ap- 
pease. The rush and roar of the storm of hu- 
man passion in the streets seemed still to in- 
crease, and to approach nearer to the doors of 
the palace. Danger of violence and death was 
imminent. Nearly all had withdrawn from the 
Tuileries except the royal family. Louis Phi- 
lippe now thought only of escape. Surround- 
ed as the palace was by the mob, this was no 
easy task to accomplish. The king disguised 
himself in citizen's dress. The queen was al- 
most frantic with terror. 

The king, having abdicated in favor of his 
grandson, the Count de Paris, was disposed to 
leave the child-monarch with his mother in 
the palace. He flattered himself that the in- 
nocence of the child and the helplessness of 
the mother would prove their protection. But 
when the Duchess of Orleans perceived that no 



1848.] The Theone Demolished. 387 

Peril aud sufleriugs of the Duchess of Orleans. 

arrangements were being made for her escape 
and that of her children, she exclaimed in an- 
guish, 

"Are you going to leave me here alone, 
without parents, friends, or any to advise me? 
What will become of me?" 

The king sadly replied, "My dear Helen, 
the dynasty must be saved, and the crown pre- 
served to your son. Eemain here, then, for 
his sake. It is a sacrifice you owe your son." 

Seldom has a woman and a mother been 
called to pass through a more severe ordeal 
than this. The peril was awful. In a few 
moments a mob of countless thousands, com- 
posed of the dregs of the populace of Paris, in- 
flamed with intoxication and rage, might be 
surging through all the apartments of the 
Tuileries, while the duchess and her children 
were entirely at their mercy. No ordinary 
heroism could be adequate to such a trial. 
The duchess threw herself at the feet of the 
king, and entreated permission to accompany 
him in his flight. The king was firm, cruelly 
firm. Leaving the widow of his son, with her 
two children, all unprotected, behind him, he 
withdrew, to efiect his own escape with the 
queen and the princesses, under the guidance 



388 Louis Philippe. [1848. 



Flight of the king. 



of his son, the Duke de Nemours, who display- 
ed the utmost heroism during all the scenes of 
that eventful day. As the party was in dis- 
guise, and the whole city was in a state of in- 
describable tumult, the fugitives succeeded in 
traversing, without being recognized, the broad 
central avenue of the garden of the Tuileries. 
Emerging by the gate of the Pont Tournant, 
they reached the foot of the obelisk in the 
Place de la Concorde. It was one o'clock in 
the afternoon; the duke had ordered the car- 
riages to be ready for them there. But the 
mob, recognizing the carriages as belonging to 
the royal family, had dashed them to pieces. 

The embarrassment and peril were terrible. 
There was momentary danger of being recog- 
nized. Then death and being trampled be- 
neath the feet of the mob were almost inevita- 
ble. An agitated throng of countless thou- 
sands was surging through the Place. Al- 
ready some began to suspect them as belong- 
ing to the court, and they were rudely jostled. 
But providentially there were two hackney- 
coaches near by. These were hurriedly en- 
gaged, the royal family thrust into them, and 
a guard of cuirassiers, previously stationed 
near for the occasion by the Duke de Ne- 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 889 

Escape. 



mours, gathered around the carriages as an es- 
cort, and at a quick trot swept along the banks 
of the Seine by the Quai de Billi, and escaped 
from Paris. That night they reached Dreux 
one of the country-seats of the king. 

Their peril still was great. The small es 
cort at their disposal was by no means suffi 
cient to protect them, should there be any up 
rising of the people to arrest their progress 
It was, therefore, deemed best to dismiss their 
guard, and proceed to the sea-coast in disguise 
by unfrequented routes, as simple travellers 
They were, however, in great want of money 
The king, in the confusion of his departure 
had left seventy thousand dollars in bank 
notes upon his bureau. He had but a small 
supply in his pocket. 

Eesuming their journey the next morning, 
they reached Evreux, and were entertained for 
the night by a farmer in the royal forest, who 
had no idea of the distinguished character of 
the guests to whose wants he was ministering. 
Early in the morning of the third day they set 
out again in a rude cart, called a Berlin, drawn 
by two cart-horses. They had many strange 
adventures and narrow escapes, even perform- 
ing a portion of their journey on foot. At 



890 Louis Philippe [1848. 



Peril of the Duchess Helen. 



length they reached the sea-coast at Honfleur, 
near the mouth of the Seine, on the southern 
bank. Here they embarked, still under the 
assumed name of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, for 
Havre, from which port they crossed over to 
New Haven, on the southern coast of England, 
leaving behind them their crown and their 
country forever. They reached this land of 
refuge for dethroned kings on the 4th of 
March, and took up their abode at Claremont, 
formerly the residence, and perhaps then the 
property of their son-in-law, Leopold, king of 
Belgium. 

And now let us return to the Princess Helen, 
who was left with her two children in one of 
the apartments of the palace. Immediately 
upon the withdrawal of the king, the troops 
in the Carrousel, who were then retreating into 
the court-yard of the Tuileries, retired through 
the palace into the garden. The princess, a 
very heroic woman, had entirely recovered 
her self-possession, and awaited her doom with 
the serenity of a martyr. As the shouting 
mob rushed into the Carrousel, and the win- 
dows of the palace were rattling from the ex- 
plosions of the artillery, M. Dupin, president 
of the Chamber of Deputies, entered the room, 




'^ V 'iimmju 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 393 

She retires from the Tuilerics. 

and, much agitated with both fear and hope, 
said, 

"Madame, I have come to tell you that per- 
haps the rdle of Maria Theresa is reserved for 
you." 

"Lead the way," replied the heroic woman; 
"my life belongs to France and to my chil- 
dren." 

" There is not a moment to lose," M. Dupin 
rejoined. " Let us go instantly to the Cham- 
ber of Deputies." 

As he was speaking these words, the Duke 
de Nemours returned. Peril was indeed im- 
minent. The mob was already surging in at 
the court of the Tuileries, and thundering 
against the gates of the palace. 

The princess and her few companions im- 
mediately set out on foot, to pass through the 
garden of the Tuileries, the Place de la Con- 
corde, and to cross the river, to obtain the pro- 
tection of the Chamber of Deputies. Scarcely 
had they emerged from the portals into the 
garden ere the roaring mob burst from the 
court-yard into the palace, and surged through 
the saloons with the destruction of consuming 
flame. Shouts seemed to burst from all lips, 
"Down with the Throne!" "Long live the 



394 Louis PtiiLipPE. [1848. 

The duchess in the Chamber of Deputies. 

Kepublic !" Every vestige of royalty was torn 
to shreds. The rich drapery which canopied 
the throne was rent into scarfs, or formed into 
cockades, with which the mob decorated their 
persons. 

With hurried steps and anxious hearts the 
royal party pressed on through the throng 
which choked all the avenues to the palace. 
They seem to have been partially recognized, 
for a noisy crowd followed their footsteps. 
The princess led her eldest son, the Count de 
Paris, by the hand. The youngest, the Duke 
de Chartres, was carried in the arms of an aid- 
de-camp. M. Dupin walked upon one side of 
the princess, and the Duke de Nemours upon 
the other. Safely they crossed the bridge and 
entered the hotel of the Deputies. All was 
agitation and confusion there. M. Dupin re- 
paired to the hall of session, and, ascending the 
tribune, announced that the king had abdicated 
in favor of his grandson. In a brief, earnest 
speech he urged the claims of the Count de 
Paris as king, under the regency of the Duch- 
ess of Orleans, his mother. This speech cre- 
ated a momentary enthusiasm. By acclama- 
tion it was voted that the resignation of the 
king should be accepted, and that the Count 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 895 

Speech of Lamartiue. 



de Paris should be recognized as lawful sover- 
eign, under the regency of the duchess. Just 
then Lamartine came in. 

Lamartine, notwithstanding the brilliance of 
his talents and the purity of his character, was 
by no means insensible to flattery, or to the 
suggestions of ambition. It is said that a 
group of Republicans had but a moment be- 
fore met him at the entrance of the building, 
with the assurance that a Republic was inevi° 
table, and that all the Republicans were look- 
ing to him as their leader and future Presi- 
dent. These assurances may not have swayed 
his judgment. But many who had supposed 
that his strong predelictions were for royalty 
were not a little surprised when he ascended 
the tribune, and said, 

"There is but one way to save the people 
from the danger which a revolution, in our 
present social state, threatens instantly to in- 
troduce, and that is to trust ourselves to the 
force of the people themselves — to their rea- 
son, their interests, their aims. It is a repuhlic 
which we require. Yes, it is a Republic which 
alone can save us from anarchy, civil war, for- 
eign war, spoliation, the scaffold, destruction of 
property, the overthrow of society, the inva* 



896 Louis Philippe. [1848. 



Scene in the Chamber. 



sion of foreigners. The remedy is heroic. I 
know it. But there are occasions, such as 
those in which we live, when the only safe pol- 
icy is that which, is grand and audacious as 
the crisis itself" 

As Lamartine left the tribune, M. Thiers en- 
tered, flushed with excitement. All eyes were 
anxiously fixed upon him. Taking his place 
in the tribune, he simply remarked, " The tide 
is rising," at the same time, with dramatic ges- 
ture, lifting his hat above his head. As he 
again disappeared in the crowd, there was a 
general increase of alarm. It was manifest to 
all that affairs were now sweeping along in a 
swollen current which human sagacity could 
but feebly control. The roar of the throng- 
surging around the hall filled the air. The 
strongest minds were appalled. 

Just then the folding-doors of the Chamber 
were thrown open, and the Duchess of Orleans, 
leading the Count de Paris by one hand and 
the Duke de Chartres by the other, was ush- 
ered in. Lamartine, an eye-witness, gives the 
following account of the scene: "A respect- 
ful silence immediately ensued. The Deputies, 
in deep anxiety, crowded around the august 
princess, and the strangers in the gallery lean- 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 897 

Entrance of the duchess. 

ed over, hoping to catch some words which 
might fall from her lips. She was dressed in 
mourning. Her veil, partially raised, disclosed 
a countenance the emotion and melancholy 
of which enhanced the charms of youth and 
beauty. Her pale cheeks were marked by the 
tears of the widow, the anxieties of the mother. 
No man could look on her countenance with- 
out being moved. Every feeling of resent- 
ment against the monarchy faded away before 
the spectacle. The blue eyes of the princess 
wandered over the hall as if to implore aid, 
and were, for a moment, dazzled. Her slight 
and fragile form inclined before the sound of 
the applause with which she was greeted. A 
slight blush, the mark of the revival of hope 
in her bosom, tinged her cheeks. The smile 
of gratitude was already on her lips. She felt 
that she was surrounded by friends. In her 
right hand she held the young king, in her left 
the Duke of Chartres — children to whom their 
own catastrophe was a spectacle. A white col- 
lar was turned down the neck of each, on his 
dark dress — living portraits of Yandyck, as if 
they had stepped out of the canvas, of the chil- 
dren of Charles I." 

The duchess had but just entered when the 



898 Louis Philippe. [1848. 

The rush of the mob. 

doors were burst open by the pressure of the 
crowd, and the mob rushed in. They were 
coarse, brutal men, armed with every conceiv- 
able weapon, and immediately they inundated 
the hall. Clamorously they demanded the re- 
jection of the throne, which had, thus far, ever 
trampled upon their rights, and for the estab- 
lishment of a republic, from which alone they 
hoped for redress. A scene of indescribable 
confusion ensued, cries rising upon all sides. 
The duchess endeavored to speak. Her trem- 
ulous feminine voice was heard exclaiming:, "I 
have come with all I hold dear in the world," 
but the remainder of her words were drowned 
in the universal clamor. 

The sympathies of Lamartine, notwithstand- 
ing his republican speech, were deeply moved 
by the presence of the princess. Taking ad- 
vantage of a slight lull in the storm, when his 
voice could be heard, he said, " Mr. President, 
I demand that the sitting should be suspended, 
from the double motive, on the one hand, of 
respect for the national representation ; on the 
other, for the august princess whom we see be- 
fore us." 

But Marshal Oudinot, the Dake de Ne- 
mours, and other friends who surrounded the 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 399 

Escape of the duchess and her children. 

duchess, deemed it essential to the success of 
her cause that she should not withdraw from 
the Chamber. The human heart is often 
swayed by influences stronger than argument. 
A young and beautiful woman, heroically fac- 
ing the most terrible dangers in advocacy of 
the claims of her child to the throne, appealed 
more persuasively to many chivalric hearts 
than the most cogent logic. Every one in the 
room trembled for the life of the princess and 
her children. They were surrounded by a 
mob of scowling, ferocious men, who held pos- 
session of the hall. The blow of a club, the 
thrust of a dagger, might at any instant be 
given, and there was no possibility of protec- 
tion. 

The friends who endeavored to surround the 
princess and the children with the shield of 
their bodies gradually crowded them along to 
a higher portion of the house near the door, 
through which they could more easily effect 
their escape in case of necessity. The confu° 
sion and clamor which now filled the hall can 
scarcely be imagined. Scarcel}?" the semblance 
of a deliberative assembly was maintained. 
The triumphant mob was holding there its 
wildest orgies. In vain Lamartine, Ledru Eol- 



400 Louis Philippe. [1848. 



The Provisional Government. 



lin, and others endeavored to raake themselves 
heard, calling for a provisional government. 
The howling of the mob drowned every voice. 

The members, in confusion, rose from their 
seats. The president fled from his chair. 
Some ferocious wretches, upon whose counte* 
nances brutality was imprinted, clambered 
over the benches and leveled their maskets at 
the head of the princess. Her friends, terror- 
stricken, hurried her and her children through 
the door. The moment she disappeared there 
was a general cry for a provisional govern- 
ment, as the first step towards the establish- 
ment of a Kepublic. This call was made, not 
only by the mob, but by that large portion 
of the Deputies who thought that a Kepublic 
alone could save France from anarchy, and re- 
store to the people their long withheld rights. 

Lamartine succeeded in obtaining the trib- 
une. For a moment he was popular, the rep- 
resentative of Eepublicanism. There was a 
brief lull in the tempest as the throng listened 
to what he had to say. The following list of 
names of those proposed to constitute the Pro- 
visional Government was then read off: La- 
martine, Marie, Ledru Kollin, Cremieux,Dupont 
de I'Eure, Arago, and Garnier Pages. Some 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 401 

The moderate and the radical Republicans. 

of these names were received with cheers, oth- 
ers with hisses. It was impossible to take any 
formal vote. The voices of the Deputies were 
lost in the clamor of the mob. Still, the gen- 
eral assent seemed to be in their favor. These 
were all good men. They were deemed mod- 
erate Republicans. - 

But thei'e was another portion of the Repub- 
lican party, the radical, so called, who would 
by no means be satisfied with such an admin- 
istration as these calm, deliberate men would 
inaugurate, with their lingering adhesion to 
the rights of wealth and the dig:nitv of rank. 
There might have been possibly a thousand 
people crowded into the hall of the Chamber 
of Deputies, who thus, self-appointed, w^ere 
forming a government for a nation numbering 
thirty-five millions. 

The more radical party, perhaps equal in 
number, and no less tumultuous, composed also 
of those of the stoutest muscle and most de- 
termined will, who could elbow their way 
through the throng, gathered in the great hall 
of the Hotel de Ville, proclaimed an antago- 
nistic provisional government, more in accord 
ance with their views. Their list consisted of 
Marrast, Flocon, Louis Blanc, and Albert. Tlie 

Cc 



402 Louis Philippe [1848. 



A compromise. 



danger of a conflict, leading to hopeless an- 
archy, was imminent, as the partisans of each 
should rally around its own choice. 

The first Provisional Government, accord- 
ingly, immediately repaired to the Hotel de 
Ville, followed by a tumultuous crowd which 
no man could number. The leaders of the two 
parties soon met upon the stairs of the Hotel 
de Yille, and a violent altercation ensued, which 
came near to blows. The Place de Greve, in 
front of the hotel, was like a storm-tossed ocean 
of agitated men, " a living sea, madly heaving 
and tossing about beneath the tempest of rev- 
olution." 

Both parties were terrified by the menacing 
aspect of affairs. A compromise was hurried- 
ly agreed to by adding to the six chosen at the 
Chamber of Deputies six more, chosen from 
the party at the Hotel de Yille. Lamartine, 
from the head of the stairs, read off the list to 
the masses surging below. 

In the mean time, the Duchess of Orleans, 
having escaped from the Chamber of Deputies, 
and surrounded by friends who were ready to 
sacrifice their own lives in her defense, was with 
difficulty rescued from the crowd. Promi- 
nent among her protectors was M. de Morny. 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 403 

A surging crowd. 

As the duchess was veiled, her little party was 
soon lost in the heaving masses, and unrec- 
ognized. The terrors of the hour caused fu- 
gitives to be struggling wildly through the 
throng in all directions. The pressure was so 
great and so resistless that the duchess was 
torn from the side of her brother, the Duke de 
Nemours, and from both of her children. A 
moment after the separation, as the mother, 
frantic with terror, was groping around in 
search of her sons, a brutal wretch of gigantic 
stature recognized the Count de Paris, and, seiz- 
ing him by the throat, endeavored to strangle 
him. One of the National Guard who chanced 
to be near rescued the child, and succeeded in 
placing him in the hands of his mother. But 
the younger child, tlie Duke de Chartres, could 
nowhere be found. In vain the distracted 
mother called aloud for her child. The close- 
packed throng swayed to and fro, and her 
feeble voice was unheard in the deafening 
clamor. She was swept along by the flow of 
a torrent which it was impossible to resist. 
With exceeding diflSculty her friends suc- 
ceeded in forcing her into a house. She ran 
to the window of one of the chambers to look 
down upon the scene of tumult for her lost 



404 Louis Philippe, [1848. 



Awful scenes in Paris. 



child. Soon, to her inexpressible joy, she saw 
him in the arms of a friend. The poor child 
was. faint, and almost lifeless. He had been 
thrown down and trampled under the feet of 
the crowd. The day was now far spent. As 
soon as it was dark, the royal party, all in dis- 
guise, engaged a hack, and, passing through 
the Champs Elysees, escaped from the city. 
After a short journey of many perils and great 
mental suffering, they were reunited with the 
exiled king and court at Claremont. 

The night succeeding these scenes in Paris 
was appalling beyond imagination. There was 
no recognized law in the metropolis. A pop- 
ulation of a million and a half of people was in 
the streets. The timid and the virtuous were 
terror-stricken. The drunken, the degraded, 
the ferocious held the city at their mercy. 
Eadical as was the party which had assemlDled 
at the Hotel de Yille, there was another party, 
composed of the dregs of the Parisian populace, 
more radical still. This party was ripe for 
plunder and for unlimited license in every out- 
rage. About midnight, in a desperately armed 
and howling band, they made an attack upon 
the Provisional Government at the Hotel de 
Ville ; after a severe struggle, the assailants 



1848.] The Throne Demolished. 405 

Death of Louis Philippe. 

were repelled. The next morning the Mon- 
iteur announced to the citizens of Paris, and 
the telegraph announced to Europe, that the 
throne of Louis Philippe had crumbled, and 
that a Republic was established in France. 

We must not forget, in our stern condemna- 
tion of the brutality, the ignorance, the ferocity 
of the mob, that it was composed of men — hus- 
bands, brothers, fathers — many of whom had 
been defrauded of their rights and maddened 
by oppression. If governments will sow the 
wind by trampling upon the rights of the peo- 
ple, they must expect to reap the whirlwind 
when their exasperated victims rise in the 
blindness of their rage. 

Louis Philippe did not long survive his fall. 
He died at Claremont, in England, on the 26th 
of August, 1850. The reader, who may be in- 
terested to inform himself of the changes in 
France which followed this Revolution, will 
find them minutely detailed in the " Life of 
Napoleon III." 



THE END. 



-2 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Q 



019 650 368 7 



